Hillingdon Council is taking decisive action to address its audit backlog, implementing new measures to streamline financial processes and enhance governance. The council is working towards meeting the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's (MHCLG) backstop dates for the publication of audited accounts, as outlined in the External Audit Update Audit Committee Nov25 report.
The Audit Committee convened on 18 November 2025, to discuss strategies for tackling the backlog of local government audits, aligning with measures announced by the MHCLG. The committee reviewed the Governance Review Improvement Plan (GRIP) and the Finance Modernisation Programme (FMP), both aimed at strengthening the council's financial resilience and transparency.
The Governance Review Improvement Plan (GRIP), launched in March 2025, addresses key governance weaknesses identified in several reviews, including the CIPFA review (March 2025), Directorate Governance Internal Audit (September 2025) and the Provisional Audit Results Report (February 2025).
The GRIP is structured around three workstreams: financial governance, directorate governance, and constitutional/democratic governance.
The Finance Modernisation Programme (FMP) is a transformation initiative designed to review and strengthen the council's financial systems, processes and structures. The update included progress on accounting and Oracle systems, the impact on stakeholders, and priority actions related to accounting and control, budget monitoring and finance systems. The FMP includes a critical stream working on refreshing the Oracle EPM system, as well as workstreams on audit readiness, MTFS review, transactional process reviews, finance function skills assessment, training and change management.
Additional spend control measures are being introduced to ensure that all new spend through PO's/invoices undergoes a review and sign off process that the spend is essential.
The MHCLG has announced measures to tackle the backlog of local government audits and have proposed backstop dates for the publication of audited accounts. These are set out in the following table:
- 2024/25: 27 February 2026
- 2025/26: 31 January 2027
- 2026/27: 30 November 2027
- 2027/28: 30 November 2028
The Audit Committee will continue to monitor the delivery of actions and report back to Council to ensure recommendations have been fully addressed. More information can be found on the Hillingdon Council website and the meeting page.
