Audit and Accountability for Central Government

The Government's Response to Lord Sharman's Report 'Holding to Account'

Lord Sharman's report, Holding to Account and the Government's response, Audit and Accountability for Central Government are both available below.

"Audit and Accountability for Central Government", the Government’s response to Lord Sharman’s report “Holding to Account”, was published on 13 March 2002.

In its response the Government paves the way for increased Parliamentary scrutiny of central Government and improvements in the structure of accountability of the Executive to Parliament by:

agreeing that the National Audit Office (NAO) should audit all non-Departmental public bodies (NDPBs);
agreeing that, where the NAO needs to see documents held by bodies outside Government, it should normally have legal powers of access to them;
inviting the NAO to validate the data systems used in reporting on Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets;
supporting arrangements to promote the quality and transparency of central Government audit; and
ensuring that the new arrangements do not create significant workload in the private sector.

The "Audit and Accountability for Central Government" and the original "Holding to Account" report are available below in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website. For alternative ways to read PDF documents and further information on website accessibility visit the HM Treasury accessibility page.

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The Government’s response to Lord Sharman’s report “Holding to Account” said that an Audit Liaison Group (ALG) would be created to:

provide an effective vehicle to drive forward improvements in audit and accountability in the light of Lord Sharman’s recommendations and more generally.
consider how to ensure that maximum value is obtained from the external audit process and provide a forum to discuss wider issues of accountability in which external audit plays a role.
complement, rather than substitute for, other vehicles of discussion which are already in place. Regular contact and discussion between the Government and the NAO would continue at a range of levels.