By stewartb
A notable statement has been published today from the National Audit Office. The NAO performs a similar role to Audit Scotland but has a quite different public profile: whereas BBC Scotland and others in the mainstream media crawl through every line of every report published by Audit Scotland searching for ‘juicy’ negatives, the NAO’s output gets little mainstream news coverage in England or UK-wide, even when reporting significant negative findings.
Today’s NAO report is clearly a major ‘negative’ – and the first of its kind ever – but at the time of writing this comment, there is nothing about it on the BBC News website.
Source: National Audit Office (November 26 , 2024) Whole of Government Accounts 2022-23. Report- financial audit (https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/whole-of-government-accounts-2022-23/)
What are these accounts? ‘According to the NAO: The Whole of Government Accounts consolidates the accounts of over 10,000 public sector bodies, including central and local government and public corporations such as the Bank of England, to provide the most complete and accurate picture of the UK’s public finances.’
So they are important! But from the NAO’s press statement: ‘The disclaimed audit opinion from the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), Gareth Davies, on the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) 2022-23 is the first ever.
The NAO explains: ‘The cause is the severe backlogs in English local authority audits, with the consequence that there is inadequate assurance over material amounts throughout the WGA.’
‘Within his audit report, the NAO’s head, Gareth Davies, said he had been “unable to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence upon which to form an opinion”.’
‘Just over 10% (43) of England’s 426 local authorities submitted reliable data to the WGA. Of the near 90% of local authorities that failed to submit reliable data, 46% (196) submitted information that hasn’t been audited, and 44% (187) did not submit any data at all.’
The NAO statement adds this: ‘The disclaiming of the WGA is in relation to local authority audit omissions and unaudited returns. The impact of this impact (sic) is so large and pervasive that the Comptroller and Auditor General is unable to give any opinion on the WGA at all.’ Image the reaction to such a statement from opposition politicians – aggregated and amplified by BBC Scotland et al – if it concerned the Scottish Government’s accounts!
It is crystal clear that ultimate responsibility for local government in England lies in Westminster and Whitehall.
On November 20, 2024, the BBC News website in its Scotland section covered a new report by Scotland’s Auditor General (from Audit Scotland) majoring on perceived lack of ’transparency’ from the Scottish Government. (This topic has been addressed previously in TuS: see ‘Will Audit Scotland ever get real and fully acknowledge the UK context in which Scotland is governed?’ – blog post dated November 23, 2024.)
BBC Scotland covered the publication. In its article on the BBBC News website we have this from Scottish Conservative finance spokesman, Craig Hoy who accuses the SNP of “gross financial incompetence”. And this from Scottish (sic) Labour finance spokesman, Michael Marra : “The SNP has created a blackhole at the heart of public finances but has refused to be honest about how it happened or what it means.”
It’s evident that the NAO has just published what is a truly damning report on the financial competence of Westminster government. ‘Damning’ was the framing BBC Scotland presented in its coverage of Scotland’s Auditor General’s report where opposition politicians sought to exploit what were relatively subjective judgements.
How might the BBC frame this latest report from the NAO – the one that states (let’s recall): ‘there is inadequate assurance over material amounts throughout the WGA’ and “unable to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence upon which to form an opinion”? We may never know. Will the NAO’s statement prove to be sufficiently ‘newsworthy’ for the BBC – anyone seen or heard anything yet? The BBC truly does seem to reserve special treatment for government in Scotland!
The varying history of National Auditing across the UK:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I heard an interview with a Reform member lately (sorry, hazy on details) where he said their call for a Trump like doge in the UK would be carried through if Reform won control of councils. The guy said that no-one knows where council tax money is spent because of a lack of transparency so was probably aware of the audit report.
Here’s what Richard Murphy thinks Reform will seek to do http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05/03/where-will-reform-find-cuts/
Every Scottish voter should be watching developments closely, it might be our only chance to see the practical implications of voting Reform who I imagine will be throwing money at our 2026 election to try to buy themselves some Holyrood seats. It will be harder for them to waffle vaguely about change (though we’ve seen that can work) when we can see how they are handling real power albeit at local level.
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Thanks Brenda
Very useful link
I take some comfort in the Scottish polls showing Reform UK stuck in the low to mid teens and thus relatively powerless in 2026. In GE 2029, on the other hand – worrying indeed
John
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I don’t John.
They have some traction here which really shouldn’t be possible.
There is money behind them.
There is a big billboard in Hamilton with Farago’s ugly fizzer all over it
It would be defaced by now had a Tory or SNP face been there instead.
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It’s Farage – how could you tell if it HAD been defaced ?
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“Every Scottish voter should be watching developments closely, it might be our only chance to see the practical implications of voting Reform”
Indeed Brenda.
Now that Reform UK have taken control of specific English councils within England then they must , for once, be accountable to the public in England.
Who , as a English public , are seemingly no longer willing to listen to any more feeble ‘excuses’ from any political party as to their reasons for failing to deliver that which they promised in their election campaigns, or indeed neither do they, the public, want to hear yet another political party playing the ‘Blame game’.
So if Reform UK , as new councils, think that they can just blame the UK government for them , as a council , failing to do this , that and the next thing in their respective areas then I think they may see a very public backlash.
Which will then impact Reform UK in subsequent polls that are currently predicting Reform UK are on course to either be the next UK government outright or part of a coalition with another party to form the next UK government in 2029.
It’s easy to carp from the sidelines but now they need to actually fix things, be responsible for budgets , have ideas and manage certain public services in their areas, what with them now being some of the newly elected local English Councils, as opposed to them just being a kind of protest party, who as such , usually just constantly harp on about immigrants, the woke left , cancel culture and Climate change denial.
Voters in these English areas want to see their areas rejuvenated, given proper funding, also to have public services working efficiently and also when there are problems then the public want solutions found for these problems that currently are either not working , do not exist but the public wants them to be available as a public service and so really what they, the public want from their newly elected local council, is in effect, for them to see major ‘Reform’.
English councils responsibilities in services include schools, social care, housing, waste collection, planning, and various community services. They also play a crucial role in promoting local economic, social, and environmental wellbeing.
If the party called Reform UK fail to actually ‘reform’ things (or they actually make things worse) then they , like the Tories and Labour , will then be written off as a voting option in all future elections for the public.
I note that Farage mentioned Wales was looking good for Reform UK in the 2026 Welsh elections and he was asked if he would keep free prescriptions there.
His response was “If we can, yes of course.”
The key words in that response are “If we can” as that means ‘probably not’. (or rather most certainly not and he already has the excuse at hand as to why Reform UK would not support free prescriptions to be kept in Wales – or Scotland either).
In fact Reform UK looks as if they may not ‘reform’ many (or any) of the things that some voters assume they will reform,.
So those things that do need to be reformed and those other things that should not be reformed will be the very things that they, Reform UK, will decide to either reform or decide to not reform.
Confused well that’s their plan.
(None of their so called ‘reforms’ that they will pretend that they have done will stop the suffering many currently endure with the cost of living crisis still existing in their UK).
Some voters should be really careful of who and what they think they are voting for , as Reform UK is just a party title (actually it’s a company with shares), but that name does not necessarily mean you will see the kind of reforms that you want to see or that you and your area needs to get.
Vote SNP in 2026 or lose a lot of the benefits we have thanks to the SNP as Reform UK are a English Nationalist party and they do not want Jocks getting benefits that the English are not getting (and won’t get either if Reform UK were in charge of England as a UK government Ha Ha).
BTW now that Reform UK are winning via FPTP does that now mean that they no longer, as a party, will campaign for proportional representation in all future elections in England & Wales ?
The HOC election , Mayoral elections in England, Police and Crime Commissioner elections and local council elections in England & Wales all use FPTP systems.
Votes select a preferred candidate . The candidate with the most votes wins.
Someone should ask Farage that Q on FPTP , as well as a huge amount of other relevant questions on policies etc too , if he has no definite answers (as in if he is still being way too vague in his responses) then voters would be wise to not risk voting for Reform UK .
As they will then , as voters, be voting blindly, never a good thing to do, unless you really do not care what happens to either yourself or your family.
(Which is pretty much what Reform UK wants, i.e. blind allegiance from those who are oblivious to the potential negative consequences for them as Brexit UK citizens voting in a rogue political party like Reform UK to -supposdley – govern them – but then they, as UK citizens, end up not being governed properly or very well- see under Labour & the Tories – also too Lib Dems as part of a Tory/Lib Dem coalition UK government ).
This is now the reality for Scotland within their UK , which as a lived reality, is very much a distinctly different reality to the supposed (fake) reality that we in Scotland were once promised in 2014 if we voted NO.
I say NO Thanks to that fake reality that we now have and YES please to a future independent Scotland, where the reality of life will then be way way much better than the one we currently have, and so we must endure with us still being a part of their broken right wing Brexited UK .
Liz S
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Hi John I hope you find this of interest.
Right-wing Reform leader Farage wants to replace the NHS with a USA style “insurance based model”.
One of the many companies the multi-millionaire Farage owns, which was set up in May 2024, is called ‘Action on World Health LLP’. As “Co-founder and Chairman” Farage wants to reform or replace the World Health Organisation.
One of its directors is also a director of a consultancy which advises, among other sectors, health care firms – “particularly mental and behavioural health”.
According to the hypocritical Labour Government Health Secretary Wes Streeting
“Farage has been pushing healthcare charges to his supporters in private for over a decade saying, “I think we are going to have to move to an insurance-based system of healthcare”. Now he’s going public, proposing that “if you can afford it, you pay”.
Nigel Farage Says He Is ‘Open to Anything’ When It Comes to Replacing NHS With ‘Insurance-Based Model’ – Byline Times
Richard Murphy- “Wes Streeting’s plans for the NHS all have one purpose, and that is to increase the role of the private sector and big pharmaceutical companies within it, at cost to us, the patients. He should not be trusted”.
Wes Streeting really does want to privatise the NHS
So with Farage and his Reform Party, along with Labour and the Tories, determined to privatise our NHS, this is the reality that could be coming to us all sooner than later and let’s be honest about it, just like their “ Poll Tax” they will “trial” it out in Scotland first!!!
“60,000 Americans die unnecessarily every year because they can’t afford to see a doctor”.
From a speech in 2024 at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Bernie Sanders said that “the U.S. health care system is “totally broken, it is a system not designed to provide health care to all people in a cost-effective way,” he said. “It is a system designed to make huge profits for the insurance companies, the drug companies, and many other industries within the system.”
Sanders stated that Americans spend $13,000 per person each year on health care.
“Across the country, 85 million people are either uninsured or underinsured. People in the U.S. pay more money for prescription drugs than people anywhere else in the world. And about 60,000 Americans die each year because they can’t get access to health care in a timely way.”
“If you are low-income or working-class in this country, your life expectancy will be 10 years shorter than people who have money. In other words, poverty in America is a death sentence.”
He also said that “ crushing amounts of medical debt” are to blame for 500,000 people going bankrupt each year.
Other problems are “lack of access to health care in rural areas and rural hospitals shutting down, and a massive mental health crisis.”
“ We don’t have enough doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, mental health counselors, dentists. We don’t even have enough pharmacists. We have a major crisis in our public health workforce.”
“Medical students”, he added, “face staggering debt for their education that can soar as high as $400,000 to $500,000.” Meaning that “new doctors are more likely to opt for a high-paying specialty rather than a position in primary care in a rural area in need of clinicians.”
Sanders called it “insane” that people’s health insurance is typically tied to their employment because it creates a system in which low-wage workers often have substandard health care. And if people lose their jobs—like many did during the pandemic—“they may also lose their health care, he said.”
Bernie Sanders describes ‘dysfunctional’ U.S. health care system—and how to fix it | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
From Oncology Times 2002
“Uninsured cancer patients are generally in poorer health and they are more likely to die prematurely than are persons with health insurance, largely because of delayed diagnosis,” said Mary Sue Coleman, PhD, the IOM committee co-chair, a biochemist and cancer researcher who recently became the President of the University of Michigan after serving as President of the University of Iowa and Iowa Health System since 1995.
“For example, uninsured women with breast cancer have a 30% to 50% higher risk of dying than women with private health insurance. Uninsured patients with colon cancer have a 50% to 60% higher mortality rate than those with private health insurance.”
Oncology Times
The crippling financial toxicity of cancer in the United States
From a report by the National Library of Medicine 2019
“The term “financial toxicity” describes the financial burden experienced by cancer patients and its consequences. Patients who cannot afford their cancer care, even with insurance, often use their savings and borrow money to pay for treatment. Moreover, 40–85% of patients also need to take time off work or quit their jobs during cancer treatment, exacerbating their financial strife. To pay for their care, patients often alter their lifestyles by reducing spending and by selling possessions or property. Unfortunately, these lifestyle changes do not protect patients from incurring debt or declaring bankruptcy. Financial toxicity has been studied across multiple cohorts in the United States. In their recent article, Gilligan et al. report on financial toxicity in patients diagnosed with cancer.
Gilligan et al. characterized financial toxicity in 9.5 million newly diagnosed cancer patients over the age of 50 between 2000 and 2012. They reported that over 42% of patients fully depleted their assets and over 30% incurred debt (consumer, mortgage or home equity) by the second-year of their diagnosis. The odds of net worth depletion were higher for patients with worsening cancer, patients over 75 years old, as well as for patients with public or no insurance. By analyzing longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a large nationally representative cohort, their results provide compelling evidence of cancer-related financial toxicity across America.”
The crippling financial toxicity of cancer in the United States – PMC
SNP MSP Clare Haughey said: “With Nigel Farage openly proclaiming that the NHS should not be publicly funded and the UK Labour Government ‘holding the door open’ to more private healthcare involvement, it is clear that only the SNP can be trusted to stand up for the NHS.”
“The SNP will always stand by the founding principles of the NHS, keeping it free at the point of delivery and where it belongs, in public hands.”
“While other parties shift to the right to pander to the politics of Reform – with Anas Sarwar talking about working with them as he desperately attempts to get a whiff of power – the SNP will always stand up to Nigel Farage’s toxic agenda.”
Nigel Farage ‘doesn’t want’ NHS to be publicly funded | The National
JB
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