Response to Centre for Public Scrutiny Consultation Paper on Local Public Accounts Committees

I welcome this opportunity to submit written evidence to the Centre for Public Scrutiny (CfPS) Local Public Accounts Committees (LPACs) Discussion Paper. This reply draws on my personal senior level experience and recent published academic work on financial sustainability, accountability and transparency in central and local government. Overall, the main focus of my response concerns how LPACs can be operationalised. The scope of the response is confined to England, and it should be noted that there are some important differences in arrangements for other parts of the UK. Firstly, my response highlights some context and previous evidence I submitted to Parliament on this area with online links that include my published work. Secondly, my response addresses the specific questions raised in the consultation paper.