Introduction
PSAA has issued its formal invitation to all eligible bodies to opt into the national scheme for local auditor appointments for the second appointing period, which will provide external audit arrangements for the period commencing from the financial year 2023/24.
This prospectus is published to provide details of the national scheme and to assist eligible bodies in deciding whether or not to accept PSAA’s invitation. The scheme has been shaped by your feedback to the June 2021 consultation on our draft prospectus. The key areas of our approach that have been refined in response to consultation feedback are set out later in this prospectus.
In relation to appointing auditors, eligible bodies have options to arrange their own procurement and make the appointment themselves or in conjunction with other bodies, or they can join and take advantage of the national collective scheme administered by PSAA.
A decision to become an opted-in authority must be taken in accordance with the Regulations, that is by the members of an authority meeting as a whole, i.e. in Full Council, except where the authority is a corporation sole, such as a police and crime commissioner, in which case this decision must be taken by the holder of that office.
An eligible body that has decided to join the scheme must inform PSAA by returning the Form of Acceptance Notice (issued with the opt-in invitation) no later than midnight on Friday 11 March 2022.
An eligible body that does not accept the opt-in invitation but subsequently wishes to join the scheme may apply to opt in only after the appointing period has commenced, that is on or after 1 April 2023. In accordance with the regulations, as the appointing person, PSAA must: consider a request to join its scheme; agree to the request unless it has reasonable grounds for refusing it; and notify the eligible body within four weeks of its decision with an explanation if the request is refused. Where the request is accepted, PSAA may recover its reasonable costs for making arrangements to appoint a local auditor from the opted-in body.