We asked the Treasury what its plan was for achieving timeliness as well as removing of the disclaimer opinion from the WGA’s accounts, and how it would achieve both at once. The Treasury told us that there was a rapid rise in missing bodies from 2019 to last year, where local authorities were 21 WGA0001 22 Q 8 23 Letter from the Permanent Secretary concerning local audit backlogs, 5 March 2025 24 Letter from HM Treasury to Committee of Public Accounts, 29 November 2024, WGA 2022–23 pp29–30 25 Q 16 11 struggling to deliver accounts. COVID disruption was noted as a significant factor in the delays, and now the government wants to prioritise the timeliness of WGA and get back to the pre–COVID position.26