Other public audit bodies

 

State Audit

 

As the auditor of central government expenditure, the NAO is the principal state audit body in the United Kingdom and retains responsibility for some audit matters ‘reserved’ to the UK Government after devolution.

 

Other Audit Bodies

 

Other bodies are responsible for other aspects of public spending in the UK:

 

• The Audit Commission is responsible for appointing the auditors for local authorities and health service bodies in England and for promoting value for money in these sectors.
  

  (NB: In August 2010, the government announced its intention to abolish the Audit Commission. Future arrangements to local government spending will be subject to Parliamentary legislation.)

• The Auditor General for Scotland, supported by Audit Scotland, is responsible for auditing the expenditure of the Scottish Parliament and Executive and reporting to that Parliament. Staff at Audit Scotland are also responsible for local authority audit in Scotland.
• The Auditor General for Wales, who is supported by Wales Audit Office, reports to the National Assembly on the accounts and value for money of central and local government bodies in Wales.
• The Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Audit Office do a similar job in respect of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

 

Public Audit Forum

 

The various public audit bodies work as closely as possible together to share good practice. To this end, they established the Public Audit Forum to act as a focus for developmental thinking on public audit.

 

Europe

 

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) are responsible for auditing European Union expenditure in all EU member states, including the United Kingdom.

 

The NAO acts as a liaison point between the ECA and UK departments. We also report regularly to Parliament on issues relating to the expenditure of EU funds in the UK, and on occasion, on wider issues of financial management within the European Union.

 

From 2008, the NAO is supporting the Treasury on the production of an audited statement of the United Kingdom’s use of European Union funds.

 

This statement, and the accompanying audit opinion, fulfils the Government’s November 2006 commitment to Parliament to present each year an annual consolidated statement on the UK Central Government receipts and use of EU funds which brings together figures which are currently published in many different departmental reports.