Commentary Part 5 – Conduct of Local Audit Section 30: Unlawful expenditure or activity of health service bodies
110.This section provides for the steps a local auditor of a health service body must take if the auditor believes that the body, or an officer of the body, is about to take or has taken decisions which have incurred or would incur unlawful expenditure, or is about to take or has taken a course of action which would be unlawful and likely to lead to a loss or deficiency. The auditor must, as soon as reasonably practicable, notify the Secretary of State and, if the body is a clinical commissioning group, the NHS Commissioning Board. If the body is an NHS trust or the trustees for an NHS trust, the auditor must notify the Secretary of State and the National Health Service Trust Development Authority.  (Paragraph 13 of Schedule 13 provides for this.)