Audit Quality Report 2024

Building Lasting Confidence and Trust in Quality

In today’s rapidly evolving public sector landscape, the importance of audit quality cannot be overstated.

The public sector, UK companies and individuals across society continue to face major upheaval and uncertainty: from climate change to digital disruption; from significant pressures on public finances to the lingering vestiges of high inflation and interest rates; and, from the change of emphasis of a new UK government to the uncertainty of elections in Wales and Senedd reform in 2026.

At the heart of our commitment to the people of Wales lies an unwavering belief that audit will continue to have a significant role in holding Welsh public bodies to account in the face of these challenges: a commitment that is underpinned by principles of trust, confidence and transparency.

The forewords to our Audit Quality Reports over the past three years chronicle the initial planned, and subsequently significantly delayed, reform of audit. In July 2024, the new Government, through the King’s Speech, announced that it intended to bring forward a draft Audit and Governance Reform Bill. In the absence of any significant detail, it is not clear how a new act will directly impact on Audit Wales.

However, we remain committed to applying best professional practices to all our work to ensure that our quality continues to be of a high standard; our work remains impactful; and as an organisation we continue to offer value for money to the Welsh taxpayer.

To do this, we believe therefore that we must be:

• A learning organisation: one that is open to new ideas; uses quality and other processes to continue to evolve; and, has a leadership that reinforces learning – one that embraces a culture of continuous improvement and that allows us to adapt and respond to our rapidly evolving landscape.
• Ready, willing and safely able to exploit technological developments across various digital frontiers, including data analytics; artificial intelligence and machine learning; and automation.
• Able to navigate the complexities of the modern audit landscape with a diverse, skilled, and agile workforce. We must be capable of attracting, developing, and retaining a workforce and ensuring that is well-supported to meet the challenges we are facing.

We continue to be rightly proud of our public sector audit model in Wales and are unwavering in our commitment to audit quality. If we are to build lasting confidence and trust in quality we must continue and renew our efforts to embrace continuous learning; harness the power of digital technology; and, to invest and develop our workforce.

Dr Ian Rees, chair of Wales Audit Board

Adrian Crompton, Auditor General for Wales