Councils regulate their own affairs through their own arrangements for governance, internal reporting, resource management and performance management. Certain of these responsibilities are discharged by nominated officers such as the Section 151 Officer (financial monitoring), Monitoring Officer (legal compliance) and the Chief Internal Auditor. The compliance and performance of councils is also regulated by external bodies appointed by the Assembly (and occasionally by the UK Government).
However the relationship between local government and the regulatory bodies has evolved into one where the emphasis is on support rather than regulation.
In addition to the regulatory bodies, there are a number of other agencies which support local authorities.
Links to the websites of these bodies can be found on the right.