The Department’s Accounting Officer is responsible for the overall accountability system for local government, including providing assurance that it is working effectively and understanding risk, both across the system and in relation to individual councils.54 The Department has improved aspects of its oversight of local government finance since 2010–11, for example by collecting information from a wider range of departments in preparation for spending reviews and creating analytical tools to inform its assessment of financial risk.55 The Department has been collecting information on the impact COVID-19 is having on local authority finances. However, it told us that it plans to cease this data collection at the end of 2021.56We previously reported on the quality of the Department’s engagement with local government during the pandemic, although the performance of 47 Committee of Public Accounts, Financial sustainability of local authorities, Fiftieth Report of Session 2017–19, HC 970, 4 July 2018, recommendation 6 48 Committee of Public Accounts, Local government governance and accountability, Ninety-Seventh Report of Session 2017–19, HC 2077, 15 May 2019, para 5 49 Committee of Public Accounts, Oral evidence: Local Government Governance and Accountability, HC 1738, Wednesday 27 March 2019, Q 27 50 Sir Tony Redmond, Independent review into the oversight of local audit and the transparency of local authority financial reporting, September 2020, para 9.6; Committee of Public Accounts, Financial sustainability of local authorities, Fiftieth Report of Session 2017–19, HC 970, 4 July 2018, recommendation 6; Committee of Public Accounts, Local government governance and accountability, Ninety-Seventh Report of Session 2017–19, HC 2077, 15 May 2019, recommendation 2 51 (LFS0001/ICAEW), paras 35 and 36 52 Qq 112–114 53 Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, Local audit framework: technical consultation, 28 July 2021, paras 97–100 and questions 16, 17 54 Ministry