We have previously expressed our concern that local government accounts have become impenetrable to many and that unless local authority accounts are useful, relevant and understandable they will not aid accountability.78 CIPFA, one of the bodies responsible for setting the code of practice on local authority accounting, recognised in its evidence to us that local government accounts make it ‘difficult for council taxpayers and service users to understand how resources have been used.’79 Local audit provider Grant Thornton highlighted the particular complexities caused by the adjustments or ‘statutory overrides’ government applies to local government accounts to protect council taxpayers from the potential impact of accounting entries which are required under international accounting standards, but which do not have immediate day-to-day implications for how authorities need to manage their funds.80 Local auditor Mazars told us the number of these accounting adjustments continues to increase.81 CIPFA however told us the driver of complexity was the increasingly commercial nature of local government operations rather than the accounting standards themselves.82