Commentary Part 7 – Miscellaneous and Supplementary Section 35: Examinations by the Comptroller and Auditor General
124.This section amends the National Audit Act 1983 by inserting section 7ZA. The new section provides a power for the Comptroller and Auditor General to undertake and publish the results of examinations regarding the value for money with which relevant authorities have used resources in undertaking their functions. Under the National Audit Act 1983, the Comptroller and Auditor General may already carry out such examinations into any department which it audits; and similar studies may be conducted in relation to bodies that receive more than half their income from public funds and which are appointed (or whose members are required to be appointed), by or on behalf of the Crown. At the moment these powers do not extend to local authorities and many other local public bodies. Health service bodies are already subject to examination by the Comptroller and Auditor General under the National Audit Act 1983 and therefore excluded from this section.
125.Section 7ZA provides for the Comptroller and Auditor General to undertake thematic examinations relating to relevant authorities, although some relevant authorities are excluded from this power. The examinations must be designed to complement the National Audit Office’s role in holding Government to account to Parliament regarding the resources it provides to relevant authorities, or support relevant authorities to learn from any thematic or systemic issues identified. These powers do not enable examinations of individual relevant authorities and are not designed to produce assessment of the performance of individual relevant authorities or comparative analyses in the form of published league tables.
126.The Comptroller and Auditor General must consult relevant representative organisations of the relevant authorities which are the subject of examinations under new section 7ZA and subsection (9) requires the Comptroller and Auditor General to take into account other relevant examinations in developing the programme. The new section enables the Comptroller and Auditor General to access information required for examinations from relevant authorities. It allows the Comptroller and Auditor General to combine examinations under this new power with examinations undertaken within existing powers (i.e. of government departments and other bodies as set out above).