The National Audit Office (NAO) is the UK’s independent public spending watchdog.

We support Parliament in holding government to account and we help improve public services through our high-quality audits.

We are independent of government and the civil service. The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), Gareth Davies, leads the NAO. He is an officer of the House of Commons with statutory authority to:

• audit and report on the financial accounts of all government departments and other public bodies
• examine and report on the value for money of how public money has been spent. ​

The Public Accounts Commission (TPAC), a parliamentary committee of MPs, oversees our work.

Read more about the governance of the NAO.

We have an ambitious five-year strategy from 2020 to 2025. Its aim is to improve our support to Parliament in examining public sector performance, provide more practical recommendations that lead to better outcomes, and share more of our independent insight.