North East Franchising Scheme Assessment Independent Audit

This opportunity is to enter into Contract(s) for Service with Provider(s) for an Independent Auditor of the North East Combined Authority's (North East CA) Bus Franchising Scheme Assessment.

On 30 July 2024 the North East Mayor Kim McGuiness and Cabinet approved a project to undertake a Franchising Scheme Assessment (FSA) and the Authority is currently preparing an assessment of the proposed bus franchising scheme in accordance with section 123B of the Transport Act 2000 as amended by the Bus Services Act 2017 (the "Act"). The FSA is delivered collaboratively with partners across the region, supported by specialist consultants, with a cabinet decision on whether to proceed to Audit expected in March 2026.

As part of meeting the requirements of the Act, if a decision is made to proceed to obtaining a report from an [auditor][independent approved person], the Authority will require a suitably qualified organisation (the "Auditor") to undertake an audit of the Assessment and to provide an opinion in relation to the following areas required by section 123D of the Act:

• Whether the information relied on by the Authority in considering the matters referred to in section 123B(3)(d) of the Act (the affordability of the scheme) or section 123B(3)(e) of the Act (the value for money of the proposed scheme) is of sufficient quality;
• Whether the analysis of that information in the Assessment is of sufficient quality; and
• Whether the Authority had due regard to the Guidance issued under section 123B of the Act in preparing the Assessment.

The objective of this project is to deliver an independent audit to the North East CA of the FSA in accordance with relevant requirements of the Act.