The External Audit
The Council’s financial year runs to the 31st March, where every year an Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) is prepared and submitted to the council’s independently appointed external auditors for review.
The Local Audit & Accountability Act 2014 and the Accounts & Audit Regulations 2015 set out the responsibilities of all local councils in respect of their accounting and auditing procedures. The Council is audited under the Limited Assurance Audit Regime, alongside all other town and parish councils, under these requirements.
The purpose of the annual governance statement is for an authority to report publicly on its arrangements for ensuring that its business is conducted in accordance with the law, regulations and proper practices and that public money is safeguarded and properly accounted for.
Therefore, from a finance perspective, the AGAR brings together the primary financial control mechanisms which exist during each financial year into one summary document for inspection with supplementary information. As such, the AGAR contains 4 core sections which are called:
Annual Internal Audit Report
Annual Governance Statement
Accounting Statements
External Auditor’s Report and Certificate
Section 1 = The Annual Internal Audit Report
The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) issues an annual document called the Practitioners’ Guide which includes a section dedicated to internal audit. The document itself is actually written by the Joint Panel on Accountability and Governance (JPAG) which is responsible for issuing proper practices about the governance and accounts of smaller authorities.
It is a matter for the Council itself to determine how best to meet the statutory requirement for internal audit, having regard to its size, scope of services and complexity of financial arrangements. As such, Spennymoor Town Council have a dedicated committee which oversees our internal audit function called the Audit Committee. A summary of current Council committees can be found in the Powers and Duties of Committees Policy which can be found click here.
The appointed internal auditor for any given financial year would carry out the agreed audit plan, and report back their findings to the Audit Committee. At the end of each financial year they would submit their Annual Internal Audit Report for inclusion in the AGAR (where the audit plan should cover the various internal control objectives which are listed on the Annual Internal Audit report).
Section 2 = The Annual Governance Statement
Ultimately, the Members of Spennymoor Town Council are responsible for ensuring that there is a sound system of internal control. As such, it is the Council as a whole which must complete every section of the Annual Governance Statement with an understanding where appropriate of how each requirement has been met.
This statement is approved via a full Council meeting normally in May or June each calendar year.
Section 3 = Accounting Statements
In line with requirements, the Council must appoint a Responsible Financial Officer (RFO) to oversee the day-to-day financial transactions within the organisation (in line with the Council’s financial policies, procedures and controls), where ultimately they are responsible for producing the required annual accounting statements with supplementary information for inspection by the external auditor.
These accounting statements provide a summary of the financial position of the Council at 31st March, and summarise the financial transactions throughout the financial year under the required headings.
Section 4 = External Auditor’s Report and Certificate
Normally in June every year, we submit a draft AGAR with supplementary information to the external auditors for a limited assurance review. We also publish our draft AGAR and the notice of public rights for review on our website.
Once the external audit is concluded we publish the final fully completed audited AGAR (with the external auditor’s section now completed) and conclusion of audit notice on our website.
Other Information
The Government published the Local Government Transparency Code in February 2015. The intention of the Code is to increase transparency in the publication of public sector data and particularly around how public money is being used, in order to allow local people to hold local authorities to account over how their council tax is spent and the decisions that are taken on their behalf.
As a Council we attempt to be as open and transparent as possible, and we now video record all of our full Council meetings and our primary two committee meetings which are held in the Council Chamber, in addition to providing copies of full agenda packs for every official council meeting on our website with the ultimately ratified minutes for that meeting. Please click here for Council meetings.
We also detail and publish every penny of expenditure on a month by month basis in addition to all purchase orders of over £2,500 having to be brought for appropriate committee or full Council authorisation either in retrospect or advance.
The annual precept which is charged to our parishioners is based upon the annual agreed budget which is normally ratified at full Council in either December or January. Therefore, within the full agenda pack is a detailed budget containing all of our income and expenditure budget lines for full transparency. In addition, our annual fees and charges list is ratified at the same time so that it is fully incorporated into the annual financial budget.
Quarterly budgetary control reports are produced for our policy and resources committee meeting, and these detailed reports can be seen in full within the meeting agenda packs.
We are a large parish council and own a lot of buildings, structures and pieces of land scattered across the parish from closed cemetery walls, bus shelters and war memorials to our beautiful Jubilee Park, numerous community centres and our historic Town Hall building.
Finally, for ease of reference please click here for our current policies which include the two core financial policies which are called Financial Regulations policy, and Contracts and Procurement policy.
2022/23 Annual Governance and Accountability Return
The 2022-23 Annual Governance and Accountability Return of the Council was approved at a Council Meeting on 27th June 2023. It was then submitted to the Council’s external auditors along with various supporting records and information on 28th June 2023.
Please see below a copy of:
The notice of Public Rights in relation to the inspection of the 2022/23 accounts.
2021/22 Annual Governance and Accountability Return
The 2021/22 Annual Governance and Accountability Return of the Council was approved at a Council Meeting on 28th June 2022. It was submitted to the Council’s external auditors along with various supporting records and information.
A copy of the statutory notice of public right in relation to the inspection of the 2021/22 Annual Governance and Accountability Return can be viewed by the link below:
Exercise of Public Rights for the accounts for year ending 31 March 2022
2020/2021 Annual Governance and Accountability Return
The 2020/21 Annual Governance and Accountability Return of the Council was approved at a Council Meeting on 22nd June 2021. It was submitted to the Council’s external auditors along with various supporting records and information.
A copy of the statutory notice of public right in relation to the inspection of the 2020/21 Annual Governance and Accountability Return can be viewed by the link below:
Exercise of Public Rights for the accounts for year ending 31 March 2021
2019/20 Annual Governance and Accountability Return
The 2019/20 Annual Governance and Accountability Return of the Council was approved at a Council Meeting on 25th August 2020. It was submitted to the Council’s external auditors along with various supporting records and information.
The audit is now complete and the Council is pleased to report that the auditors have signed off the 2019/20 Annual Governance and Accountability Return and issued their External Auditor Report and Certificate with no issues of concern identified.
A copy of the audited 2019/20 Annual Governance and Accountability Return of the Council can be viewed via the link below:
Audited 2019/20 Annual Governance and Accountability Return
The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 and Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 confer a number of statutory rights for local electors in relation to the inspection of the Council’s annual accounting statements within the Annual Governance and Accountability Return.
A copy of the statutory notice of public rights in relation to the inspection of the 2019/20 Annual Governance and Accountability Return can be viewed via the link below:
Notice of Completion on Audit of Accounts 2019/20
Notice of Electors Rights in Relation to the Inspection of the 2019/20 Accounts
