To present the External Auditor’s Combined Annual Report for the years ended 31 March 2021, 31 March 2022 and 31 March 2023 and to enable the Committee to consider the value for money commentary provided by the Council’s External Auditor.

Further to the request made by the Committee at its previous meeting, the Committee had before it a report of the Director (Finance & IT) (A.4) which presented the External Auditor’s Combined Annual Report for the years ended 31 March 2021, 31 March 2022 and 31 March 2023.

A report from the Council’s External Auditor (EA) was attached which set out the most up to date and independent value for money commentary on the Council’s arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources.  The EA’s report had been formally considered by the Council’s Audit Committee on 9 December 2024 and set out a detailed commentary on a range of value for money issues along with providing a summary of the key issues arising from the work of the External Auditor for the years ended 31 March 2021, 31 March 2022 and 31 March 2023. In terms of this latter point (pages 5 and 6 of the EA report), this referred to the work the Auditors had undertaken as part of their statutory financial statements work, which had been considered by the Audit Committee as part of the activities associated with the publication of the Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23.

In terms of the value for money element of the work undertaken by the Council’s External Auditor, the Code of Audit Practice required auditors to carry out a full scope audit of Value for Money (VFM) arrangements for 2023/24 onwards. However, as set out within the EA’s Combined Annual Report, a reduced scope had been carried out to date as permitted for preceding years. From 2024/25 onwards, auditors would be required to issue their annual auditor’s report containing the VFM commentary each year by 30 November. This had been designed to ensure that, even where the financial audit opinion was disclaimed, the audit still provided useful information to audit committees and other stakeholders about the financial management and financial sustainability of local bodies.

The EA’s detailed value for money commentary was set out on pages 7 to 17 of the EA’s report and it highlighted a number of important areas of the Council’s work and demonstrated a strong and continually improving picture across the various value for money themes.

This was a very welcome position which hopefully provided Members with assurances, especially around the two key themes of financial sustainability and governance, given no such independent commentary had been provided in recent years due to the external audit delays.

Although highlighted on page 17 of the attached report, it was worth highlighting the following statement by the External Auditor:-

“Our VFM work for 2020/21 to 2022/23 has not identified any significant weaknesses in the Authority’s arrangements. However, we have identified opportunities for the Authority to improve their arrangements and have made a recommendation accordingly.”

In respect of the recommendation referred to in the above statement, this was also set out on page 17 of the EA’s report along with confirmation that the associated matter had been addressed in 2023.

It was moved by Councillor P Honeywood, seconded by Councillor S Honeywoodand:-

RESOLVED that the contents of the report be noted.