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Statement on Internal Control, Controls Assurance Standards
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Last modified date:8 February 2007
Statement on Internal Control
These will be submitted to the Department by the organisation's Appointed Auditors as part of the audited financial statements in accordance with the accounts timetable for 2002/03; i.e. by 31st July for PCTs, St HAs and SHAs and by 8th August for NHS Trusts. You should plan for this deadline to be brought forward by some 3-4 weeks for 2003/04 with further, as yet not specified, tightening in subsequent years.
(NB the guidance to controls assurance leads refers to the "Statement on Internal Control / Assurance Statement"
- this is simply the "Statement on Internal Control."
)
Statements on Internal Control
Controls Assurance Standards
The audit requirement for 2002/03 remains unchanged; i.e. auditors must review the 3 core standards as part of their work. Reviews of the other standards are not mandatory for Internal Audit to undertake, but they should be used to inform the risk based audit approach where relevant.
It is the Boards responsibility to ensure they have appropriate assurance (verification) on non-core standards prior to submission or notify the Department of Health, in accordance with guidance issued. This assurance on the non core standards may come from various sources, and I stress it is the Boards responsibility to identify the sources of those assurances.
You will need to liaise with clients to ascertain when they propose submitting their returns to the Controls Assurance Support Unit (CASU) as the dates for submission have changed for this year, and are as follows:
Acute & Specialist Trusts - must submit Infection Control data, suitably verified and Board endorsed by 15 May 2003.
In addition they are encouraged to submit all other Standards, suitably verified and endorsed, by 15 May 2003, but there is flexibility to report up to 31 July 2003 where existing processes are geared to the later deadline.
PCTs, non Acute Trusts, etc. - are encouraged to submit all Standards as soon as possible after the 15 May, but with flexibility to report up to 31 July 2003.
(Please refer to letter from Lorraine Thomas dated 30th January 2003 for further details.)
Third Party Assurance Statements for the NHS Based Shared Service Providers
A briefing note in relation to third party assurance statements was recently drafted. It's purpose is to ensure that third party assurance statements made by the internal auditors of NHS shared service providers are in a standard format and are based on principles of best practice. Please follow the link below for full details.
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