What is an appointing person and which bodies are eligible to opt in?

Public Sector Audit Appointments Limited (PSAA) has been specified as an appointing person under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 and the Local Audit (Appointing Person) Regulations 2015. It has had the power to make auditor appointments for audits of the accounts from 2018/19 onwards on behalf of eligible principal local government bodies that opt in.

Eligible bodies are those in the principal local government body types listed in schedule 2 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 with annual income or expenditure in excess of £6.5m. This includes county councils, district councils, London borough councils, unitary authorities, metropolitan councils, local police bodies, fire and rescue authorities, combined authorities (covering elected regional mayors), national park authorities, conservation boards, passenger transport executives, waste authorities, functional bodies, and other specified bodies.

Authorities with income and expenditure of less than £6.5m (such as parish councils) are smaller authorities and do not require a full audit. Smaller authorities can choose to be treated as full audit authorities in which case they are eligible to opt in as principal authorities.

NHS bodies are not eligible to opt into our scheme.

The list of the local government bodies opted into the 2018 appointing person scheme is available.

The list of the local government bodies opted into the 2023 appointing person scheme is available.