Financial Audit and Assurance Services Contract

Modification Notice Original description: This Lot includes a number of Pension bodies. The pensions bodies are some of the most significant public sector pension schemes which would be suited to suppliers with actuarial and pensions audit expertise. Pension schemes are the biggest liability in the Whole of Government Account and are therefore under a significant level of scrutiny as to their valuation when informing overall government fiscal policy. The Pension Protection Fund is a statutory public corporation who are responsible for protecting people with an eligible defined benefit pension when an employer becomes insolvent. Description of the modifications The Financial Audit and Assurance Services contracts awarded under procurement reference GEN_20_22 have been modified to increase the overall contract value by £9.6 million and extend the existing arrangements. The modification ensures continuity of audit and assurance services and supports the National Audit Office in meeting its statutory responsibilities. The nature, scope and objectives of the contracts remain unchanged. Description of the economic or technical reasons and the inconvenience or duplication of cost preventing a change of contractor: Additional audit and assurance services are required from the original contractors to ensure continuity of statutory audit delivery. Changing contractors at this stage would cause significant inconvenience, duplication of costs and disruption to audit planning, delivery and quality assurance. The modification does not alter the overall nature of the contracts and the increase remains below 50% of the original contract value.