Paragraph 9: Appropriate qualifications
56.This paragraph modifies section 1219 of the Companies Act 2006 to provide when a person holds an appropriate qualification for the purposes of local audit i.e. that he or she holds either a qualification recognised in accordance with regulations made by the Secretary of State, or a professional qualification obtained in the UK which is recognised in accordance with Chapter 2 of Part 42 of the Companies Act. Subsections (2) to (6) set out the matters about which the Secretary of State may make regulations to provide for a qualification to be recognised as an appropriate qualification, including how such a qualification is to be recognised, and the requirements such a qualification would need to meet. Subsection (7) sets out which existing professional qualifications will be considered appropriate for local audit under the new framework. This is to ensure that individuals qualified under the Audit Commission Act 1998 will be able to continue to undertake local audit in the new regime. Subsection (13) provides that a qualifying body which offers a qualification that has been recognised in accordance with regulations made by the Secretary of State is to be known as a “recognised qualifying body”.