Clause 60 - Meaning of ''Welsh NHS body''
Public Audit (Wales) Bill [Lords]
3:30 pm
Mr Bill Wiggin (Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, Local and Devolved Government Affairs; Leominster, Conservative)
The new clause concerns the audit regime for NHS bodies in Wales. We welcome the fact that the Government have not simply copied the existing arrangements for health bodies, as they have done for most of the Bill, but have instead given the Auditor General fuller auditing responsibilities in the audit regime. However, some useful existing provisions have been excluded.
Under the existing legislation the health body auditor is allowed to act if he believes that unlawful expenditure is about to be incurred and needs to be looked into. The auditor can carry out an extraordinary audit, and the Secretary of State can call for one. Those provisions prevent problems from getting out of control. However, there are no such useful provisions in the Bill with regard to health bodies. That sets up differences between not only England and Wales but between health bodies and local authority bodies in Wales. The amendment is a version of section 19 of the Audit Commission Act 1998, which would restore the current position for health bodies.