Issue - meetings

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Matt Dean introduced the item for discussion and made the following points:

·  This time table set out in practical terms what was provided for in legislation that had recently gone through Parliament;

·  This legislation set up the backstop date for the next five years that Councils should follow for their audit activities;

·  All 2022/23 audit activities had to be completed by the 13th of December 2024;

·  The 2023/24 audits they had to be completed by 28 February 2025;

·  That meant that the 4 December 2024 Governance and Audit Committee meeting would consider an abridged version of the 2022/23 audit. The auditors would bring to the Council’s attention any key points that TDC should take note of and this would include sharing a draft opinion;

·  Auditors were due to commence work on the 2023/24 accounts. The aim was to complete as much work as they could on the 2023/24 accounts with a focus on the in-year spend and the closing position as at 31 March 2024;

·  This was in order to give TDC the assurance of the in-year movement was where it should be and that the closing numbers were where they should be;

·  The challenge was there would not be the assurance for the opening figures for 2023 (as at 31 March 2023). In practice that would mean Grant Thornton would therefore give a disclaimed opinion on the 2023/24 accounts in respect of those opening balances. The auditors would be saying that not enough work would have been done to provide an assurance for those accounts. This was inherent with where the situation was with regards to audit work;

·  All councils were currently facing the same situation;

·  This might also be the same situation for 2024/25;

·  There were discussions across the sector which were trying find ways to give all local councils unmodified opinions;

·  In the last few weeks, the LACLG were indicating that they were prepared to tolerate disclaimed opinions as a sector up to 2024/25. They wanted the sector to return to normal for 2025/26;

·  That position by the LACLG would help key players in the sector that included CiPFA, FRC, CLG and Grant Thornton to develop a solution that would allow councils to get to that place;

·  In order to achieve that the starting position would be to use ‘deemed balances’. A statutory override would confirm the numbers in the reserve balances as correct. This was the sensible approach to address the challenges faced by all councils and the sector;

·  The challenge had been getting other key players (CiPFA and FRC) to accept what this approach actually meant. This was an approach that the government appeared to support as the best way forward.

Committee members asked questions and made comments as follows:

·  The Committee understood the reasons behind this approach that was being discussed in the sector as a possible way forward that would enable councils to get to the normal way of public accounting;

·  To what extent were these delays actually more apparent than real and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21