Part 3: Public service broadcasters Chapter 2: S4C Section 34: Accounts and audit
This section changes the current legislation setting out S4C’s financial audit arrangements so that the Comptroller and Auditor General is formally appointed in legislation as S4C’s external auditor rather than S4C being able to choose its own auditor with confirmation by the Secretary of State. This was one of the recommendations of the independent review published in 2018, and although the Comptroller and Auditor General has since taken over the auditing of S4C’s accounts, this section puts the arrangement on a statutory footing.
	Subsection (2) inserts new paragraphs (2A) to (2F) into Schedule 6 to the BA 1990 (S4C: supplementary provisions). Paragraph (2A) requires S4C to send a copy of its financial accounts to the Comptroller and Auditor General as soon as possible after the end of the relevant financial year.
	Paragraph (2B) sets out the role of the Comptroller and Auditor General. This includes ensuring the Secretary of State receives a copy of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report on each statement of accounts of S4C, and the associated certified statement.
	Paragraph (2C) states that it is the responsibility of the Secretary of State to lay the report and certified statement before Parliament.
	Paragraph (2D) states that S4C must arrange for the report and certified statement to be laid before Senedd Cymru, the Welsh Parliament, as soon as possible after the Secretary of State has fulfilled their responsibilities in paragraph (2C).
	Paragraph (2E) states that each S4C subsidiary must appoint the Comptroller and Auditor General as auditor unless the Comptroller and Auditor General agrees that the S4C subsidiary may appoint a different auditor. Paragraph (2F) confirms that the Comptroller and Auditor General may inspect the accounts of any S4C subsidiary regardless of the identity of the subsidiary’s auditor.
	Subsection (3) requires S4C to give the Secretary of State access to the accounts and related documents of an S4C subsidiary.
	Subsection (4) is a consequential amendment repealing paragraph 13(2) of Schedule 6 to the BA 1990 (accounts and audit report to be attached to annual report).