This meeting was scheduled to receive several reports about the Council's activities and governance. It was also scheduled to approve the Statement of Accounts for 2022-2023 for the year ending 31 March 2023, subject to external audit. The committee was informed that the external auditors, Ernst & Young LLP, anticipated issuing a disclaimer of opinion on the accounts because it was not possible for them to complete all of the necessary procedures required to support an audit opinion by the statutory backstop date imposed by the government of 13 December 2024.

It should be noted that this is only a summary of what was scheduled to be discussed in the meeting, based on the documents that were provided to the attendees for the meeting. It does not tell us anything about what was actually discussed, or whether any decisions were actually made.

Statement of Accounts for 2022-23

The Committee was scheduled to consider and approve the Statement of Accounts for 2022-2023, and note the financial outturn position. They were also scheduled to authorise the Letter of Management Representation to be sent to Ernst & Young LLP. The report pack included a statement from John Ward, the Director of Corporate Services and Section 151 Officer¹ about the accounts:

The outturn position on the General Fund for 2022-23 is a deficit of £0.283m. The most significant variations between the latest approved budget and the outturn position for 2022-23 are detailed in Appendix 2. Any ongoing effect of these variations not already considered when the 2023-24 budget was set, were considered as part of the monitoring, and forecasting of the 2023-24 outturn position and when setting the 2024-25 base budget.

2022-2023 Annual Governance Statement and Corporate Governance Report

The Committee was scheduled to consider and recommend to full Council for approval the Draft Annual Report on Corporate Governance, the Annual Governance Statement 2022-2023 and the Internal Audit and Corporate Investigations Annual Report 2022-2023. The draft Annual Report on Corporate Governance listed the top ten risks identified in the Corporate Risk Register and explained what the council was doing to manage them.

Global Internal Audit Standards Update

The committee was scheduled to note the pending implementation of the Global Internal Audit Standards (GIAS), which were due to replace the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards (PSIAS) in April 2025. The report pack stated that the new standards provide a single source to guide the worldwide professional practice of internal auditing and serve as a basis for evaluating and elevating the quality of the internal audit function. The report also provided a summary of the key differences between the existing PSIAS and the new GIAS.

Audit Completion Report for 2022-23

The Committee was scheduled to consider and note the Audit Completion Report for 2022-23. Ernst & Young LLP noted in the report that due to the new backstop date of 13 December 2024 they anticipated issuing a disclaimer of opinion on the Council's financial statements. They explained that Given that Statutory Instrument (2024) No. 907 - “The Accounts and Audit (Amendment) Regulations 2024” (the SI) imposes a backstop date of 13 December 2024 by which date we are required to issue our opinion on the financial statements, we have considered whether the time constraintsimposed by the backstop date mean that we cannot complete all necessary procedures to obtain sufficient, appropriate audit evidence to support the opinion and fulfil all the objectives of all relevant ISAs (UK).

Constitution Update Report

The Committee was scheduled to note the changes to the Constitution that had been made in the period August 2023 to October 2024. These changes were described in Appendix 1 - summary of revisions to constitution made as at 10.10.24 to the report. The changes appear to have been procedural and administrative in nature.