The establishment of a publicly owned audit provider could be considered as part of the workforce strategy currently being overseen by the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC’s) director of local audit.
Neil Harris told a Local Government Association (LGA) conference that he was pleased to see that two new providers – Bishop Fleming and Azets Audit Services – had joined the local government audit market in the latest procurement round. But the FRC wanted to encourage more entrants.
Harris, who took up the role in September 2022, told delegates: “[A publicly owned audit provider] is not something I am committed to do, but all options need to be on the table about building more resilience into the market.”
A public provider was suggested by Steve Freer, chair of Public Sector Audit Appointments, in an article for Room151 in November 2022. He wrote that this would help “manage fluctuations in capacity and protect against insufficient supply in future procurements”.
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In the Q&A session following his presentation at the LGA Local Government Finance conference, Harris told Room151: “We are at the very early stages of designing the workforce strategy and what work needs to be done to look into that, research it and come up with recommendations later this year.
“My view is that we shouldn’t just shut the door on [a publicly owned provider]. It is something that you would look at and might be viable in the medium and long term.
“But that is not me saying that I think it should happen either.”
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