The current arrangements for local audit, whereby a single organisation - the Audit Commission - is the regulator, commissioner and provider of local audit services are inefficient and unnecessarily centralised. The Audit Commission has increased the professionalism and the quality of local government audit, but, it has also become too focused on reporting to central Government and supporting the previous era of a target driven Government. We are clear that centralised inspection and supervision have no part in localism and that they can be an unnecessary burden on frontline services at a time when they must be tightening their belts and.
