Local authority audit in England, playing the field?

Abstract

This study focuses on the field of public audit as a collibrative element of public sector accountability. It reports on the consequences of substantial collibrative intervention in such a field. The intervention studied is the change to local authority audit in England that culminated in the Local Audit and Accountability Act, 2014, and entailed the abolition of the Audit Commission. Drawing on strategic action field theory, and through examination of submissions to the Redmond Review and other documentary materials, an analysis is developed of the field of public financial audit in its ongoing efforts to re-equilibriate following the intervention. The analysis explores the action taken in pursuit of the restoration of field stability, effective functioning, and legitimacy, and the effects on public accountability. The analysis supports Julia Black's contention that different accountability regimes are not readily substitutable and exposes some of the risks and difficulties associated with attempts to modify accountability through collibrative intervention.

Public accountability and democracy: An accountability stage in the theatre of democracy

“…Indeed, even the concept of substituting one accountability form or mechanism with a different accountability form or mechanism can be fraught. In such cases one should, at a bare minimum, expect the resultant accountability to be substantially different to that which it replaced (Black, 2008;Bradley et al, 2023). With that expectation and recognition of a rising incidence of rhetorical usage of 'accountability, ' Bovens' (2010, p. 949) warning is pertinent: As an 'active sense of virtuous behavior (accountability) is easily used, but hard to define substantively; (it is) essentially a contested and contestable concept par excellence because there is no general consensus about the standards for accountable behaviour.'…”