Provision of External Audit Services

The aim of this procurement process is to invite bids for the provision of External Audit of the NMC's financial statements, for the year ending 31 March 2022 onwards. As a summary, this includes:

The NAO place reliance on the work of Council-appointed auditors, so it is essential that our auditors work effectively with the NAO, and the NAO are confident in their work. You will be required to provide an opinion for the NAO and share any of your working papers with the NAO on request.

Our overarching objective is the protection of the public, and we are a registered charity, but our finances are much simpler and more secure than many charities: we have no voluntary income, or charity shops, or branches or subsidiaries. So we have less need for charity expertise from our auditors than other charities might, but charity expertise is still relevant and desirable.

Our key operations include the maintenance of our register and our fitness to practise process, and our income is almost entirely made up of our registration fees. Experience of working with other regulatory or membership organisations and understanding of those business processes is desirable.

In practise we prepare our annual report and accounts broadly in accordance with the HM Treasury Financial Reporting Manual (FReM), which impacts significantly on the content of the annual report, and to a limited extent on the disclosures in the notes to the accounts. Understanding of the requirements of the FReM is, therefore, desirable.

The external auditor is required to meet all relevant standards defined by law and by all appropriate regulators. The external auditor will need to demonstrate that these standards have been met.