We are pleased to present our Annual Plan for 2025-26

This Plan sets out our priorities for the next 12 months. 2025-26 is the fourth year of our existing 5-year strategy. Delivery of that strategy remains paramount, and we are well on track to do so by further sharpening our audit programme delivery and increasing our impact and visibility.

Public services continue to face enormous financial, demand and workforce pressures. Though public bodies must make their own decisions about how they navigate those challenges, independent public audit highlights opportunities for improving value for money, supports good governance and financial management, and may provide early warning of problems arising. This Annual Plan describes how we intend to do that in the coming year and so provide the public, the Senedd, decision-makers and influencers with the information and assurance they need about how well public money is being spent.

The biggest area of our work involves auditing the accounts of over 800 public bodies across Wales. Through the COVID pandemic period the timeliness of the delivery of this work deteriorated. Working with our audited bodies, it is taking several years to bring that large programme of work back to pre-pandemic timescales, but we are determined to do so and confident that we will. In 2025-26, we will continue the progress made over the last two years to bring forward the reporting deadlines for our audit of accounts work.

We also aim for further improvement in the timeliness of the performance audit work we deliver at individual NHS and local government bodies. Again, we are confident that we will do so. With the public purse strings so tight, it is more important than ever to get value for money from every pound of public spending. In our local and national studies programmes, therefore, we aim to give even sharper focus to value for money through stronger financial and outcomes analysis.

The next few years will see considerable change and opportunity for Audit Wales. In 2026, the eight-year term of the current Auditor General will end, and a new Auditor General will be appointed. Also in 2026, there will be elections to an expanded Senedd. As well as the wider economic, social and political environment, we know our auditing, financial reporting and public sector landscapes are constantly evolving; increasingly we see them affected by new technologies, ever-growing regulatory requirements and public expectations of government accountability. Our Annual Plan for 2025-26 sees us readying ourselves for that evolving world.

None of our objectives for high-quality public audit can be achieved without our staff. Over the coming year, we will continue to provide an excellent, flexible employment offer that supports employee wellbeing and a working environment that encourages collaboration and high-quality work. As we do each year, we have also reviewed our framework of key performance indicators and associated targets, to ensure they remain fully aligned with our objectives and are suitably challenging.

This Annual Plan covers the last full 12-month period of Adrian’s tenure as Auditor General and continues progress towards the delivery of our 5-year strategy. As has been our aim throughout his time as Auditor General, it focuses Audit Wales on using its unique perspective and expertise to assure the people of Wales that public money is being well managed, to explain how it is being used, and to inspire and empower the public sector to improve.