Commentary Part 8 – Inspections Chapter 4 – Inspection and review of Local Authorities in England Section 138: Annual reviews of local authorities in England
587.This section sets out the requirement for the Chief Inspector to undertake an annual review of local authorities’ performance of functions to which the Chapter applies and of related activities (see section 135: functions to which this Chapter applies and related activities). Having carried out such a review the Chief Inspector is required to award a performance rating for each authority. The intention is that these performance ratings will feed, alongside ratings for other services, into the annual comprehensive performance assessment for local authorities which is led by the Audit Commission.  Section 99 of the Local Government Act 2003 provides that the Audit Commission must from time to time produce a report on its findings in relation to the performance of English local authorities in exercising their functions, and that the report must categorise each local authority according to how the authority has performed in exercising its functions.