Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Public Interest Reports and Recommendations (Modification of Consideration Procedure) Regulations 2014 and come into force on 1st April 2015.

(2) In these Regulations “the 2014 Act” means the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014.

Modification of consideration procedure

2.—(1) Paragraph 5 of Schedule 7 to the 2014 Act applies to the relevant authorities specified in regulation 3 with the following modifications.

(2) Sub-paragraph (5) is to be read as if for the words from “before the end of the period of one month” to the end of that sub-paragraph, there were substituted “as soon as is reasonably practicable after it has been received.”.

(3) Sub-paragraph (8) is to be read as if for the words “of one month”, there were substituted “for consideration”.

Relevant authorities subject to modified procedure

3.  The relevant authorities referred to in regulation 2 are—

(a)a port health authority for a port health district that is wholly in England;

(b)an internal drainage board for an internal drainage district that is wholly in England; and

(c)any person or body exercising functions in relation to an area wholly in England or partly in England and partly in Wales—

(i)which was originally subject to audit provisions contained in an enactment passed before the Audit Commission Act 1998(2) and

(ii)to which the audit provisions of that Act applied by virtue of paragraph 4(1) or 7 of Schedule 4 to that Act immediately before the repeal of section 2(1) of that Act by the 2014 Act.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations provide for paragraph 5 of Schedule 7 to the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 (c. 2) (“the 2014 Act”) to apply with modifications in respect of certain relevant authorities listed in Schedule 2 to the 2014 Act.

Paragraph 5 of Schedule 7 to the 2014 Act sets out the procedure for the consideration by relevant authorities of public interest reports or recommendations. Relevant authorities must consider the report or recommendation at a meeting within one month of receiving it under paragraph 5(5).

These Regulations modify the application of this sub-paragraph so that certain relevant authorities may consider a report or recommendation as soon as is practicable, rather than within one month of receipt.

An impact assessment of the effect that the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, which this instrument helps implement, will have on the costs of business is available from http://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA13-11A.pdf . No separate assessment was carried out for this instrument.