A rise in late auditing of local government accounts has come under fire from the National Audit Office which it says is affecting the quality of Treasury public sector accounting.

In its annual analysis of Whitehall's £796bn Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) for 2018/19 the NAO complains that ‘the failure to complete audits of local government bodies in a timely fashion has led to a poorer picture of the financial performance and position of the UK public sector.'