Scale audit fees

The contracts agreed with firms in 2022 run for a five-year term, with the option of a two-year extension. To ensure continuity and maintain auditor capacity, it was necessary to include provisions that mitigate the impact of inflation. This is a standard practice for contracts of this length and helps support stability and sustainability of […]

We expect auditors to discuss proposed fee variations with bodies at the earliest opportunity. Wherever possible, the auditor should highlight at the planning stage any additional work that is likely to be needed during the audit, including potential fee implications (although it may not be possible to quantify this until the work is done). Our […]

Our fee variation process uses a defined set of categories for our review of  fee variation proposals from auditors. This enables us to consider whether proposals relating to additional audit requirements, are proportionate and comparable. We use these categories in our fee variation statements to bodies. Auditors may, however, choose to use different terminology or […]

Where the statement does not include all fee variation proposals requested by your auditor, this may be because our review of some elements is not complete because we are waiting for further information. If we subsequently approve other fee variation proposals, we issue an updated statement.

The £49 million funding announced by MHCLG in April 2025 is being provided as part of the decision to overhaul the local audit system and clear the audit backlog. MHCLG has stated that this funding is to cover the costs associated specifically for bodies of clearing the backlog and rebuilding assurance, as part of the […]

In April 2025 MHCLG announced 16 new commitments to reform local audit, including simplifying financial reporting requirements and increasing capacity to avoid reliance on a small number of auditors. The reforms are backed by funding of £49 million to help eligible bodies clear their audit backlogs and cover the additional cost of rebuilding audit assurance. […]

The statutory  Code of Audit Practice (COAP) issued by the National Audit Office sets out what local auditors of relevant local public bodies are required to do to fulfil their statutory responsibilities under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014.  Local auditors must comply with the COAP. Para 2.6 requires auditors to apply the extant auditing […]

Fees for new recurring audit requirements are only consolidated into the scale fee once we have sufficiently reliable information on the level of ongoing audit work needed. The audit work…

Work on VFM arrangements comprises two elements: the core work to consider the arrangements in place included in the scale fee. The auditor needed to do this to be able…