ARTICLE VI. APPENDIX
3: DRAFT LOCAL AUDIT (AUDITOR PANEL INDEPENDENCE) REGULATIONS
2014
Additional information from the Department
for Communities and Local Government
The approach to consultation was cleared
with ministers and took account of several factors:
· the broad policy approach
in the new framework had been intensively consulted on prior to
the introduction of the Bill;
· the draft regulations had
been developed over an extended period with key partners, including
CIPFA, the LGA, NALC, SLCC the NAO and the Audit Commission amongst
others;
· the drafts had also been
shared with the Bill committee; and
· the fairly limited wider
interest in the content of these fairly technical regulations.
The consultation document was published
on the GOV.UK website, permitting interested parties to feedback
comments in writing direct to the Department, or via email to
the Future of Local Audit's EEMA account. In addition, reflecting
the short consultation period and Ministers ambition to finalise
the audit regulations during this Parliament, we used an on line
web portal to enable a more dynamic, interactive and transparent
consultation. The interactive nature of the consultation
enabled a dialogue to be opened and maintained, leading to better
understanding of the policy intentions behind the regulations
whilst enabling policy leads to probe further where there were
areas of concern and analyse consultation responses as they were
submitted.
4 of the 130 respondents expressed concern
about the compressed consultation timetable: an audit firm; a
district council; a town council; and a professional body representing
local authority treasurers who commented: "There has been
very limited publicity to bring this to the attention of interested
parties, the timescale of 4 weeks is very short and the timing
to co-inside with the Autumn Statement and the draft settlement
in the run up to Christmas leads one to think that the DCLG was
doing less than its best to encourage full engagement and a wide
response."
9 July 2014
| 
