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869 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)Clause 62 will establish a new framework for the regulation of local auditors, which will be overseen by the Local Audit Office. Independent reviews have been consistently clear…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)I misunderstood the hon. Gentleman’s original question. The accountability of the finance director, the sets of standards already locked in and the legislation they have to…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)I apologise to the hon. Member for the lack of response—I will make sure we get one to him swiftly. Inevitably, different accounting standards will be used. We will set out…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)I dare not do the job of the Local Audit Office, or indeed trained auditors, and go into detail. This provision creates powers for the LAO to design a system that works for local…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)We recognise that we have a challenge in bringing in sufficient audit capacity of the standard we need. That is the status quo. We are working closely with the sector to ensure…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)The clause will change the current requirement whereby local audits may be signed off only by a key audit partner—a senior auditor who meets specific eligibility criteria…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)It is not wild or out there to say that the new auditing body we are creating should have full flexibility to ensure that the standards being applied are appropriate. The feedback…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)Clause 66 introduces a statutory requirement for all local authorities, excluding NHS bodies, to establish an audit committee with at least one independent member. Members will be…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)Let me deal directly with amendments 18 and 17. I reiterate to the hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon what I have consistently said: the governance regime of local government…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)Let me first clarify that no decision has yet been made on who will deliver public provision. It is important to state that. The Bill is drafted deliberately to allow flexibility,…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)If the hon. Member wants examples, one example—I am sure that we can give others based on the conversations that we have had with local government—is that pensions do not drive…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)Decision making at the local authority level will remain. Accountability to the constituents in the local authority will remain. We are not fundamentally changing that regime, and…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)The hon. Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner was dissatisfied by my pensions example. In part, I hope the clause speaks to some of the challenges that we are trying to get…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)This clause will transfer responsibility for the code of audit practice from the Comptroller and Auditor General at the National Audit Office to the Local Audit Office. The clause…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)It will be the Local Audit Office, working closely with my Department, but we will obviously engage with the sector while doing that. As the hon. Member will understand, there is…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)We are having the same debate over and over again. Ultimately—I have said this before and I will say it again—it will be for the accounting officer and the finance director to…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)Clause 67 paves the way for greater flexibility in how audit regimes are determined, moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach that relies solely on the size of a local…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)I confess that I am not 100% clear about what the hon. Gentleman is getting at. I might partly answer his question by saying that the majority of public bodies—99%—are going…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)I beg to move amendment 375, in clause 71, page 72, leave out lines 22 to 25 and insert— “54A Rent reviews and arrangements for new tenancies (1) Schedule 7A makes provision about…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)I will not give way; I am going to have to close down this debate. Critically, none of this detracts from the core function of the finance director, nor does it detract from the…28 Oct 2025