Textual Amendments
F1Pt. 1A inserted (15.7.2026) by English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 (c. 23), ss. 89(1), 108(6); S.I. 2026/812, reg. 2(1)(b)
(1)The Secretary of State may pay grants to the Local Audit Office.
(2)The Office must, on request by the Secretary of State, provide estimates of its income and expenditure.
(3)The Office may charge a person a fee for the exercise in relation to that person of any of its functions that is not the subject of more specific provision about fees.
(4)That includes functions under—
(a)an agreement under section 6B(5)(a), or
(b)rules or arrangements made for the purposes of Schedule 1C.
(5)A fee charged by the Office (under subsection (3) or otherwise) need not be calculated by reference to the cost of doing the thing to which the fee relates.
(6)But the Office must set its fees with a view to securing that, over time, its income from fees is broadly equivalent to such of its expenditure as is not met by way of grant from the Secretary of State.
(7)In subsection (6)—
(a)the reference to fees includes other sums payable to the Office by agreement (see in particular section 6B(5)(b)), and
(b)the reference to setting fees includes agreeing fees and other sums so payable.
(8)Subsection (9) applies to any sum received by the Office by way of penalty under—
(a)paragraph 3 of Schedule 1B (penalties against external registration body), or
(b)arrangements made for the purposes of paragraph 10 of Schedule 1C (penalties against registered local audit provider),
including any interest.
(9)The Office—
(a)must pay the sum to the Secretary of State, but
(b)may deduct any costs incurred by it in connection with the imposition or enforcement of the penalty, so far as those costs are not otherwise recoverable.]