Agenda and minutes

This meeting is to be webcast and the Chairman will read the following announcement:

“I would like to remind everyone that this meeting will be filmed live or recorded, and uploaded to the internet and will be capable of repeated viewing.

Therefore, by participating in this meeting, you are consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images and sound recordings.

If any public speakers on MS Teams do not wish to have their image captured, they should ensure that their video setting throughout the meeting is turned off and set to audio only.

Members and public speakersare reminded to turn on their microphones before speaking and turn them off when they have finished.”

The Chairman made a short address to remind everyone present that the meeting would be broadcast live to the internet, and would be capable of repeated viewing, which could infringe their human and data protection rights.

To declare interests in any item on the agenda for the meeting of the Committee.

There were no declarations of interest made pursuant to the Council’s Members’ Code of Conduct.

The Section 151 Officer, A Small, introduced the report on the Audited Statement of Account for 2022/23 and emphasised that this Council would be in the small minority of Councils who had had their Annual Accounts up to 2022/23 audited and signed off by the ‘backstop’ date of 13 December 2024 set by the Government.

The Council’s External Auditor presented the report on the Audited Statement of Account for 2022/23 and drew the Committee’s attention to the six Key Messages listed on pages 12 and 13 of the agenda. The 3 significant risks were also highlighted to the Committee, these being:

·       Property Valuation – Fixed Assets & Investment Properties;

·       Revenue expenditure incorrectly capitalised; and

·       Management override of controls.

Two other areas of focus were also emphasised, these being the Defined Benefits Pension Scheme and the Group Accounts. The External Auditors had issued an unmodified audit opinion on the Statement of Account for 2022/23.

In response to questions from members of the Committee:

·       A Small explained that the materiality threshold for a minor adjustment to become a major adjustment for the Council’s accounts was £2.5million.

·       The Chief Financial Officer, C Hartgrove, explained that the largest of the Council’s assets to be written down was a historical infrastructure asset, whereby it was listed on the Balance Sheet but it was not clear which of the Council’s assets the entry referred to from the records kept 20 years ago. It was also emphasised that the Council’s assets was valued in the £100milions so this was a small adjustment in comparison.

·       A Small stated that control observations were picked up by the Finance Team when they prepared the following year’s accounts. C Hartgrove added that some of the issues had already been addressed and that a lot of work had gone into improving the quality of the Council’s Accounts over the past 4 years. The External Auditor reassured the Committee that the Control Observations from the previous year would get reviewed as part of the audit of the following year’s Accounts.

·       The External Auditor informed the Committee that, as the Council used external specialists as part of the asset valuation process, there was nothing significant to highlight here.

·       A Small stated that trends over the previous 5 or 10 years could be provided for the Committee, but the number of non-cash transactions within the accounts both distorted the picture of the Council’s Accounts and made them impenetrable to the casual reader in comparison to private sector accounts. In many cases, the Council’s reserves and cash balances gave a truer picture of the Council’s financial position than the Balance Sheet.

·       A Small felt that the Council had certainly changed since the Covid pandemic, with a greater emphasis now on hybrid working, but the resultant economic changes had been due to the general economic situation rather than the pandemic. The Council had been under pressure to control its spending as support from the Government was not keeping pace with the Council’s rising costs. However, the Council always  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

To consider and comment upon the External Auditor’s Annual Report for the years 2021/22 and 2022/23 (attached).

The External Auditor presented their Annual Report for the years 2021/22 and 2022/23. The report examined the Council’s ability to secure Value for Money (VfM) from its use of its resources. The report studied 3 aspects: Financial Sustainability; Governance; and Improving Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness. No risk of significant weakness had been identified in the Council’s financial statements for both 2021/22 and 2022/23.

The Section 151 Officer, A Small, felt that the key finding of the report was the Council was providing Value for Money. The Chairman of the Committee believed that the report also emphasised the importance for the Council of revenue generation in general and revenue generation from the Qualis Group.

            Resolved:

(1)        That, having considered the Auditor’s Annual Reports for the years 2021/22 and 2022/23, the audited Statement of Accounts for 2022/23 be approved subject to any minor amendments being agreed by the Chairman of the Audit & Governance Committee before 13 December 2024.

Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972 requires that the permission of the Chairman be obtained, after prior notice to the Chief Executive, before urgent business not specified in the agenda (including a supplementary agenda of which the statutory period of notice has been given) may be transacted.

No other business was raised for consideration by the Committee.

Exclusion:

To consider whether, under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press should be excluded from the meeting for the items of business set out below on grounds that they will involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the following paragraph(s) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act (as amended) or are confidential under Section 100(A)(2):

The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006, which came into effect on 1 March 2006, requires the Council to consider whether maintaining the exemption listed above outweighs the potential public interest in disclosing the information. Any member who considers that this test should be applied to any currently exempted matter on this agenda should contact the proper officer at least 24 hours prior to the meeting.

Background Papers: 

Article 17 of the Constitution (Access to Information) define background papers as being documents relating to the subject matter of the report which in the Proper Officer's opinion:

(a)        disclose any facts or matters on which the report or an important part of the report is based;  and

(b)        have been relied on to a material extent in preparing the report and does not include published works or those which disclose exempt or confidential information and in respect of executive reports, the advice of any political advisor.

The Council will make available for public inspection one copy of each of the documents on the list of background papers for four years after the date of the meeting. Inspection of background papers can be arranged by contacting either the Responsible Officer or the Democratic Services Officer for the particular item.

The Committee noted that there was no business which necessitated the exclusion of the public and press from the meeting.