The meeting received an update on the progress of the external audit of the council’s accounts for 2022/23. The auditors have been unable to complete their audit by the government's backstop date of 13 December 2024 and are therefore disclaiming their opinion on the accounts. The Council also approved the match funding required for a bid that has been submitted to the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to improve the energy efficiency of Staveley Healthy Living Centre.

External Auditor’s Annual Report and Audit Completion Statement for 2022/23

The Council noted the actions taken by the Standards and Audit Committee in relation to the external auditor’s Audit Completion Report and Auditor’s Annual Report for 2022/23. The external auditor, Forvis Mazars, explained the reasons why they have disclaimed their opinion on the council’s accounts for 2022/23.

As a result of the backstop arrangements, we have determined that there is insufficient time to complete our audit procedures so as to obtain sufficient appropriate evidence, and, in our view, the effects of the resulting lack of assurance is pervasive to the financial statements as a whole. As a result, we intend to issue a disclaimer of opinion on the Council’s financial statements.

This is due to new backstop measures introduced by the government to clear the national backlog of unaudited local authority accounts. The auditors also noted that they had identified two significant weaknesses in the council's arrangements for securing value for money, which they will report on in their Auditor's Annual Report for 2022/23. The first significant weakness relates to the quality of the draft Statement of Accounts submitted for audit. The auditors highlighted challenges in confirming manual adjustments made to the trial balance, obtaining working papers, and staff turnover. The second significant weakness identified relates to governance over controls and processing of payroll. The auditors highlighted a number of issues and control deficiencies raised by the council's internal auditors in their review of Payroll services in June 2023, as well as difficulties experienced by the external auditors in obtaining sufficient audit evidence and reconciling payroll expenditure to the draft financial statements.

Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme - approval of match funding

The Council approved match funding of £500,000 to support a bid that has been submitted to the government's Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS). The bid seeks funding for a decarbonisation scheme for the Staveley Healthy Living Centre.

The grant funding would cover design, engineering, construction, and project management costs. It will enable the decarbonisation of the heating systems, improve energy efficiency and potentially reduce running costs, through focusing on heat decarbonisation whilst taking a ‘whole building’ approach.

The PSDS provides grant funding for capital heat decarbonisation projects to reduce carbon emissions from public sector buildings. This is a highly competitive scheme and the funding has the potential to provide up to 88% of the total project cost. The remaining 12% must be met by the bidding authority. The application submitted for the Staveley Healthy Living Centre requested a total of £2.894 million, with £500,000 being met by Chesterfield Council. The outcome of the bid is expected to be known by the end of May 2025. If the bid is unsuccessful, the Council will need to consider alternative approaches to delivering the required works.