The duty to appoint auditors to local government and NHS bodies is one of the Commission's core statutory functions in relation to audit.
The fact that local government and NHS bodies do not appoint their own auditors helps to ensure that auditors are entirely independent and, just as important, are seen to be independent.
The Commission currently appoints auditors to:
- 357 local authorities
- 268 NHS bodies
- 38 police authorities
- 144 other 'principal' bodies, including fire and rescue authorities, national parks authorities and probation boards
- 65 other 'non-principal' accounts such as joint committees); and
- 9,800 'small' bodies (9,400 parish and town councils, 150 internal drainage boards and 250 other bodies).
You can find the appointed auditor's details on the individual body pages on this website.
The Commission does not appoint auditors to central Government departments. The National Audit Office (external link) is responsible for this work.
The Commission does not appoint auditors to NHS Foundation Trusts which, although public bodies, are not subject to a public audit regime. However, these bodies do have the power to appoint officers of the Audit Commission as their appointed auditors, if they choose.
Under the Audit Commission Act 1998 (the Act), the Commission may appoint:
- an officer of the Commission (from its audit practice)
- a firm
- an individual who is not an officer of the Commission
Officers of the Commission and any other individuals who are appointed must be appropriately qualified (as defined in the Act).
The Commission may also appoint individuals to assist the appointed auditor.
The Act gives the Commission flexibility in appointing one or more auditors to undertake the whole, or specified parts of, the audit. In practice, however, we appoint a single auditor to carry out the whole of the audit under the Code of Audit Practice (the Code).
Before making appointments of auditors to local government bodies, the Commission has a statutory duty to consult the body. In the spirit of openness and transparency, the Commission has extended this to health bodies.