Ferry at the Lords!

At the House of Lords, UK Parliament, 3 November 2022, Professor Laurence Ferry successfully presented his research and impact findings in a keynote speech on ‘An international comparison of audit and accountability arrangements for local government across 20 countries’.

Professor Ferry’s underpinning research for the talk was based on his recent journal article and international book on local public audit that involved 35 academics and practitioners, including Dr Henry Midgley from our Department of Accounting. This extended Ferry’s national research into regulatory space across UK local government audit from 2021. It also built on his work as a Steering Panel member on Sir Tony Redmond’s Review in 2021 and an adviser to UK Parliament select committee for Housing, Communities and Local Government 2020 (after being Parliament Academic Fellow 2018 and 2019 with the select committee). His work looked at local government audit in England, which in turn built on his long-term work with the National Audit Office (NAO) and UK Parliament and enabled a world-leading REF2021 Impact case.

Following his talk, Professor Ferry was part of the expert panel including Lord Bichard (Host and former NAO Chair), Gareth Davies (NAO Comptroller and Auditor General), Clive Grace (Honorary Professor, Cardiff University), Professor Susanna Jorge (Coimbra University, Portugal), Professor Andreas Bergmann (Zurich University, Switzerland) and Rachel Ashworth (Dean and Head of Cardiff Business School) that discussed local public audit with a packed-out house of participants from all four UK nations, the USA, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland among others.

The final panel discussion also had excellent contributions from Durham University’s International Centre of Public Accountability (ICOPA) Members: Dr Henry Midgley (ICOPA CoDirector) and Honorary Professors Aileen Murphie (Adviser Parliament Select Committee) and Khalid Hamid (CIPFA International Director).

Lord Bichard commented that this was, “one of the best events that brought (academia) to life and showed how it can contribute to solving real problems.”

Scan or click for more information on Professor Ferry and his research interests.