We are a publicly funded organisation and have a duty to be transparent in our business operations. Transparency is a key principle of the General Data Protection Regulation which sets out how we should collect and process personal information. It also affects the way we manage and share all of our data.

Transparency is a legal requirement, but it is also important to us that we ensure the public understands how we operate, what to expect from us and the reason we take or implement certain actions.

This page sets out our transparency principles and provides all of our publicly disclosed corporate information.

Principles

Our basic principles on transparency are:

  • Be open and transparent and meet our statutory obligations
  • Make our information easily accessible and easy to understand
  • Provide clear and concise information
  • Identify opportunities to improve and change
  • Respond quickly if errors are identified and rectify them

Here we have consolidated all our information regarding transparency for you to consider with links to more detailed pages.

Privacy statement

Our privacy statement explains how the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) and the National Audit Office use and protect the data they hold.

Privacy statement

Senior staff remuneration

We provide details of the salaries of all our senior staff.

Senior staff remuneration (docx – 15 KB)

NAO strategy: Progress update and estimate memorandum

We report annually to the Public Accounts Commission on progress against our strategy.

Our Main Estimate provides for expenditure by the National Audit Office.

Diversity & inclusion

The Diversity & Inclusion Annual Report summarises our progress and activities against our Diversity & Inclusion Strategy and highlights key areas.

Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report 2023-24

As part of new legislation introduced in April 2017, the NAO is required to publish gender pay gap information. This report details our disability pay gap, ethnicity pay gap and gender pay gap, and outlines the actions we are taking to close our pay gaps.

2023 diversity pay gap report

We publish diversity and equality data each year as part of our commitment to the Public Sector Equality Duty and our wider aim to be transparent.

2024 Diversity and Equality data (xlsx – 76 KB)

Travel and hospitality expenditure

We regularly disclose details of our expenditure incurred by funds spent on travel and subsistence and the provision and receipt of hospitality by the C&AG and the Senior Management of the Office.

Travel and hospitality expenditure

Payments to suppliers

See the spreadsheets of reusable data on our Payments to suppliers page for lists of payments to suppliers where the charge to a specific cost centre is equal to, or greater than, £500.

Contract performance data

Since April 2017 we have published Contract Award Notices on all contracts with a lifetime contractual value of over £10,000 on Contracts Finder. This is to comply with the Public Contracts Regulations (2015), and all procurement opportunities are advertised through our e-sourcing portal, hosted by Delta.

Prior to the regulation, awarded contracts were published on our website in the attached file Contract performance data (xlsx– 35KB), which contains all advertised contracts from 2015 to 2017.

Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoIA) gives a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities, including the National Audit Office. The Publication Scheme explains what information we proactively make available to the public. Wherever possible it provides an easy method of accessing that information.

Visit our freedom of information page to learn more about the NAO’s FOI publication scheme and how to make an FOI request.

Audit quality

We produce an annual Transparency Report which provides an overview of how our audit practice is organised, the audit work we do and how our quality and quality assurance processes are organised.

The Financial Reporting Council provides an external perspective on the quality of our financial audit work. The Council summarises the results of their inspections and the most recent are highlighted here (where appropriate, some elements have been redacted to protect the identity of individual audits).

Internal whistleblowing

We have published our internal whistleblowing policy to be transparent about how we manage internal whistleblowing. The policy enables our staff, and others who work for or provide services to the NAO (including contractors, trainees, and agency staff), to raise any concerns they have responsibly and effectively, and even anonymously.

NAO internal whistleblowing policy

If you have any concerns about an external organisation you wish to bring to our attention, please visit our whistleblowing page.

Environment and sustainability

We have a direct impact on the greenhouse gas emissions associated with business travel and energy use, and the water use, paper consumption and waste generated in our buildings. We are committed to managing our organisation in an environmentally responsible manner, and therefore have challenging sustainability targets in all these areas.

We assess the environmental impact of our activities and use an ISO 14001:2015 certified environmental management system to provide a framework for setting and reviewing environmental targets to support continuous improvement. This involves carefully controlling our use of resources and consumables, and minimising waste.

Read our Environmental and sustainability policy for more information about our roles and responsibilities.

Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement

Our Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement has been produced in accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The statement details the steps that we have taken during the 2022-23 financial year to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and business operations. More information can be found in the statement.

Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement (pdf – 132 KB)

Procurement

Read information on how we approach procurement, including how to get details of our Buyer Profile and our latest procurement opportunities.

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NAO Board

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