We help the Auditor General and the Accounts Commission with monitoring public money...
The Accounts Commission is the public spending watchdog for local government...
The Auditor General for Scotland is responsible for the audit of most public bodies...
The Accounts Commission is the public spending watchdog for local government. We hold councils in Scotland to account and help them improve.
We operate impartially and independently of councils and of the Scottish Government and we meet and report in public.
The Commission is responsible for coordinating and facilitating scrutiny in local government.
The Controller of Audit is a statutory post established alongside the Commission in 1975. The Controller reports to the Commission and highlights areas of concern.
Read the Accounts Commission’s latest newsletter. This update highlights the Commission’s work since March 2020, including planned reporting in 2021.
Read more about the Commission's role, duties and powers (PDF | 47KB). - Opens in a new window
The Commission has adopted the following principles to help it guide its work
and fulfil its responsibilities during the Covid-19 emergency:
Funding received by councils from the Scottish Government increased by £500 million in 2019/20. But Covid-19 will drive large rises in costs and spending, combined with falling income....
Responding to Covid-19 has increased the pace at which Scotland's 32 councils are delivering services through digital technology. Greater collaboration, use of shared expertise, citizen...
The Commission publishes financial audits on each council in Scotland and an annual overview report on local government, as well as individual reports about council services.
Our strategy and annual action plan outlines our priorities for the coming year. Read more about our strategy.
Find out more about what we do in our short video.
North Ayrshire Council has demonstrated a culture of continuous improvement since a previous report by the Accounts Commission in 2011.
This report is about the Scottish Government's target to deliver 50,000 affordable homes by March 2021.
Our annual overview found that most of Scotland's councils are increasingly relying on money from reserves to keep up with demand for services and balance their budgets.
As well as auditing all local authorities in Scotland, the Commission looks at any issues arising from those audits and how well bodies are meeting Best Value duties. Find out more about each of the areas below:
Details of our past and forthcoming Commission meetings may be found on our meetings page.
The public in general are our principal stakeholder but we engage with a wide range of others.
Who we engage with:
Audit Scotland
