Speeches by Cooper.

“In the recruitment process for your role, 79% of the applicants were men and 80% of those interviewed were men. What steps would you take to make sure that when the Government are recruiting—or when you are recruiting—the controller of local audit, you end up with more of a gender balance in appointable people?”

“In one of your earlier answers, you touched on the independence of the Local Audit Office. You are appointed by Ministers and required to consult with Ministers over the appointment of the controller of local audit. How will you ensure your personal independence and the institutional independence of the Local Audit Off…”

“To continue on from Lewis’s question, you are currently chair of Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd. In your declaration you have said that you will put safeguards in place to manage conflicts of interest between your responsibilities at that organisation and the new organisation, should you be successful. How do you…”

“I am Andrew Cooper, Member of Parliament for Mid Cheshire.”

“I am sure they will be reassured to hear that.”

“How will your experience at the Audit Commission inform how you set the priorities at the Local Audit Office—if it will at all?”

“Okay. We understand that you are going to be working an initial five days a week at the Local Audit Office, should you be successful. You are continuing as chair of the PSAA, and you have other responsibilities at Propertymark. How are you going to manage your time?”

“You were at the Audit Commission earlier in your career as a director and district auditor.”

“Thank you for coming today, Mr Butler. What motivated you to apply for this role? What specific experience do you bring to it?”

“I acknowledge that you are recusing yourself from some staff transfer arrangements, but nevertheless is it your expectation that there will be some continuity of staff at the PSAA and the Local Audit Office, to retain that institutional expertise?”

“Something like 91% of local audits were delivered ahead of the February backstop this year. Notably, I think the Tees Valley Combined Authority missed out. Nevertheless, 91% is an improvement on the previous year. How many did you expect to be delivered ahead of next year’s backstop date, which I think is January?”

“You may not be able to answer this question, but I will ask anyway. We have seen significant numbers of disclaimed local audits. This year, 45% were disclaimed. We would like that number to be zero. Do you have an aspirational timeline by which you expect to reach zero, and what are you doing as a Department to make su…”

“We are looking forward to meeting him next week.”

“What would you like to see the Local Audit Office achieve in its first year?”

“Thank you, Minister, for your answer. I want to build a little bit more on the risk of services deteriorating as part of the creation of unitary authorities. I want to refer to Cheshire as part of this because, as you will be aware, as an almost-Cestrian, perhaps you could say; perhaps not—”

“Andrew Cooper, Member of Parliament for Mid Cheshire.”

“—Cheshire County Council was split into Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East in 2008, with the shadow authority in place, and various district councils were merged in the unitaries at the time. In 2009, Cheshire West and Chester was graded good, I think, for children’s services. By 2010 it was grade 1, inadequat…”

“A lot of supported housing has ended up in the third sector as a result of stock transfer in the early 2000s, hasn’t it? I suppose that some RPs may consider that it is not part of their core business, that perhaps some of what supported housing is doing is an adult social care function. We understand, as we have discu…”

“Thank you. The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act was passed in 2023, and Catherine, you have referred to the consultation. When do you expect that the Act will be fully implemented?”

“Could you write to us with an indicative timetable?”