Statement of accounts
A statement of accounts is a record of the Council's spending in a year. It is an important element in demonstrating the stewardship of public money and includes:
- An overview of the Council's accounts
- Comment on the financial performance the efficiency and effectiveness in the use of resources
- Core financial statements, including income and expenditure, movement in reserves, the balance sheets and cash flow statement
The Director of Corporate Resources is responsible for ensuring that the Statement of Accounts is prepared in line with statutory and accounting requirements.
Statement of Accounts 2022
The period of public inspection for interested members of the public to exercise their statutory right to inspect the accounts was notified on 30 June 2022.
The Annual Governance Statement for 2021-22 was reviewed by the Audit Committee at the meeting on 30 March 2022 and the final Annual Governance Statement was approved at the Audit Committee on 29 June 2022.
The Draft 2021-22 Statement of Accounts have been prepared, they will be audited later in the year.
Under the 2020 Code of Audit Practice, for Local Government bodies, our auditors, EY LLP are required to issue an Auditor’s Annual Report (AAR) by 30 September or, where this is not possible, issue an audit letter setting out the reasons for delay.
The external audit of the draft statement of accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 has not yet been completed by our external auditors, EY LLP, due to the planned phased approach to delivering the 2021/22 audits in light of a variety of complex factors contributing to audit delays in previous years. This situation is allowed for by Regulation 10, paragraph (2a) of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015. (See attached link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/234/regulation/10/made ). Therefore, this notification explains, as per paragraph (2a), that we are not yet able to publish our audited 2021/22 final statement of accounts in line with deadline of 30th November 2022, as per paragraph (1). The audit committee will consider the results of the 2021/22 audit at its meeting on 7 December, after which we will publish the final audited accounts.
The auditor cannot formally conclude the audit and issue an audit certificate until they have completed the work necessary to issue their assurance statement in respect of the Authority’s Whole of Government Accounts consolidation pack. They are satisfied that this work does not have a material effect on the financial statements and that the Council has in place proper arrangements for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources for the year ended 31 March 2021.