Issue - meetings

External Quality Assessment Results (Internal Audit)

 

 

Meeting: 26/03/2026 - Audit Committee (Item 22)

22 External Quality Assessment - Final Report pdf icon PDF 733 KB

The Committee is asked to note:

1.    The report of the External Assessor following the External Quality Assessment of the Southern Internal Audit Partnership against the Global Internal Audit Standards in the UK Public Sector; and

2.    The action plan developed against suggested opportunities for future development.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered the report reflecting the outcome from the External Quality Assessment of the Southern Internal Audit Partnership (SIAP) against the new Global Internal Audit Standards (GIAS) in the UK Public Sector.

 

Iona Bond, Deputy Head of Southern Internal Audit Partnership reminded Members that internal audit providers are required to undergo an external quality assessment at least once every five years and that SIAP’s assessment was due in 2025/26.

 

The Committee noted the key findings of the assessment, in particular that:

  • SIAP had achieved an excellent result of ‘generally achieves’ in the EQA in relation to the GIAS.
  • The assessors had concluded that SIAP fully achieved 46 of the 52 standards and generally achieved the remaining six. There were no partial conformances or areas where the team did not confirm with any standards. No formal recommendations were made.
  • A small number of suggestions for improvement were included in the report and had been incorporated into an action plan, attached as Appendix 2 to the agenda report.

 

Members of the Committee welcomed the positive outcome of the assessment and congratulated SIAP on the results. The Deputy Head of SIAP concluded that the assessment process provided useful insight into the experience of being audited and reinforced the importance of a constructive and proportionate audit approach.

 

RESOLVED:

 

  1. That the Committee noted the report of the external assessor following the External Quality Assessment of the Southern Internal Audit Partnership against the Global Internal Audit Standards (UK public sector).

 

  1. That the Committee noted the associated action plan addressing suggested opportunities for future development.