Meeting documents

To consider the report.

The Vice Chair invited the Key Audit Partner of Grant Thornton to present the report. He noted that the report contained details of the progress at September 2021 of the Financial Statements audit, the Council audit, and the Pension Fund audit. The Council audit was in progress, and the external auditors were working to complete the audit in October and report to the Committee in November. Members heard that following the significant challenges encountered regarding the valuation of land and buildings, this year the external auditors would benefit from being able to access more robust evidence following significant improvements and proactive action by Officers.

The Vice Chair invited questions from the Committee, and during the consideration of the reports, issues/concerns were raised, questions asked/answered, and further information was provided.

The Audit Committee:

Accepted the report.

The Vice Chair invited the Key Audit Partner of Grant Thornton to present the report.  He noted that the report contained details of the progress at September 2021 of the Financial Statements audit, the Council audit, and the Pension Fund audit.  The Council audit was in progress, and the external auditors were working to complete the audit in October and report to the Committee in November.  Members heard that following the significant challenges encountered regarding the valuation of land and buildings, this year the external auditors would benefit from being able to access more robust evidence following significant improvements and proactive action by Officers.

Attention was drawn to the Value For Money (VFM) extension letter; it was explained that normally this would accompany the publication of the financial statements, but this year there had been a change in the code and consequently the level of work, so the deadline had been extended to the end of January.  It was explained that these changes in time scales affected the entire audit sector and not just the Council.  The Key Audit Partner confirmed that the external auditors would not be able to certify the closure of the audit until the VFM work was concluded; however, the Financial Statements opinion would be issued in all other respects, and to date no significant weaknesses have been identified in the VFM arrangements.

The Vice Chair invited questions from the Committee, and during the consideration of the reports, issues/concerns were raised, questions asked/answered, and further information was provided:

Cllr Chilcott asked if extending the deadline for the VFM report could delay closure of accounts for all Councils and asked about the risks for Councils of this pushing into the following year.  In response it was stated that the delay, due to capacity issues arising from the pandemic, had meant that it had taken longer to audit financial statements, while the new code increases work and detail.  The new National Audit Office code significantly increases the level of work with a much more detailed review required; however, this requirement would bring more value to the final report and be more informative to Members.  He noted that the Council took actions to correct factors that resulted in significant delays in last year’s audit.

The Director for Finance and Governance stated that the VFM focus is a positive move and had been welcomed nationally; and with respect to the work in the Treasury team, most of the work had been completed on the Statement of Accounts.

The Committee accepted the report.