This Committee recently recommended the Department should set out a detailed plan and timetable for getting local audit timeliness back on track. We also recommended the Department explain how it intended to work with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to set up the new system leader for local government audit, the Auditing, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA), and how it would address the pressing need for effective system leadership while ARGA was being established.43 The Department agreed with our recommendations, however we felt its response lacked detail on specific actions capable of addressing the urgent issues in local audit.44 In December 2021, the Department published a range of measures which aim to support improved audit timeliness and the wider audit market, though some are still being considered following a consultation in summer 2021 while others are subject to further consultation or may require legislation to be passed.45 These measures aim to provide a whole system response and include guidance and training for audit firms, additional funding to support local bodies with the cost of strengthening their financial reporting, measures to improve local authority accounts, reviewing opportunities to reduce some of the accounting and audit requirements and extending the deadline for publishing audited local authority accounts in future years. The Department committed to publishing an update on these measures as part of its response to the summer 2021 consultation.46 37 (LFS0001/ICAEW), pages 3 and 4 38 Committee of Public Accounts, Financial sustainability of local authorities, Fiftieth Report of Session 2017–19, HC 970, 4 July 2018; Committee of Public Accounts, Local government governance and accountability, Ninety- Seventh Report of Session 2017–19, HC 2077, 15 May 2019; Committee of Public Accounts, Local auditor reporting on local government in England, Eleventh Report of Session 2021–22, HC 171, 14 July 2021; Q105 39