The Audit & Governance Committee meeting on 9 December 2024 was scheduled to include a report on the audited statement of accounts for the 2022/23 financial year. The committee was also scheduled to consider a report on the findings of the external auditors, Deloitte, on the 2022/23 accounts.

Audited Statement of Accounts 2022/23

The report explained that the final audited accounts for 2022/23 had been completed and signed off by the statutory deadline of 13 December 2024. It was noted that the draft accounts were published on 2 June 2023, just 2 days after the statutory publication deadline, due to capacity issues within the finance team. However, the report highlighted that this was still a significant achievement, given the late running of the audit for the 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22 statements of accounts.

Epping Forest District Council is now in a minority of district councils nationally that is able to produce and publish its draft Statement of Accounts within the (very challenging) statutory deadline of 31st May.

The report also noted that the auditors, Deloitte, had issued an unqualified opinion on the accounts, meaning they found no material misstatements.

ISA 260 Report

Deloitte's ISA 260 report set out the findings from their work auditing the 2022/23 accounts. The report was appended to the agenda for the meeting and included Deloitte's opinion on the accounts.