Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to establish a regulatory framework for the audits of local authorities; and whether any such plans would include the appointment of a regulator to assess and advise on such audit reports.

The Government published its response to the Redmond Review of local authority financial reporting and external audit on 17 December 2020. The current regulatory framework for local audit was one of the matters considered by the review. We are giving close consideration to Sir Tony Redmond’s finding that the local audit framework is too fragmented and are committed to exploring the full range of options as to how the recommendations relating to system leadership can best be achieved and will update on this further later in the Spring.