This is laid down in the Audit Commission Act, which gives local electors a temporary right of access to the detailed financial records of English councils and police and fire authorities (including contracts, bills, vouchers and receipts).
The recent financial crisis presented auditors and, by extension, the Sarbanes-Oxley Actaudit reforms, with their first big test since these reforms were put into place.
Straight after the 1995 act, audit firms started doing less work, says Lynn Turner, formerly with the Securities and Exchange Commission but now at Colorado State University.