Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Capewell.

There were no Declarations of Interest declared at the meeting.

The Committee received and considered the report from the Executive Director – Resources. Members were provided with a draft set of accounts in July 2025, and this report provided an updated draft copy of the 2024/25 accounts following the audit process since that time. This set of draft accounts were provided in advance of the statutory backstop for the 27^th February 2026.

Members were reminded of the current national and local delays with the completion of external audits. The 2020/21 accounts were signed off by the committee on 15^th April 2024. The impact of that delay has therefore impacted on subsequent years’ accounts. The 2021/22 accounts were finalised in October 2024, the 2022/23 were finalised in December 2024, and the 2023/24 accounts were finalised in February 2025.

 To meet the backstop date of 27 February 2026 for the 2024/25 accounts, EY (as the external auditors) need to have completed their respective tasks in order to be able to complete their report to issue a disclaimer opinion on the accounts.

EY have circulated a draft External Audit report to Members of the Committee and will be available to provide a verbal update on the report to the meeting. The final report will be provided and published on completion of the audit after the backstop date.

Due to the tight timescales delegated authority is being requested to be given to the Chair of the Audit, Risk and Standards Committee and the S151 Officer to approve the final accounts for 2024/25 by the deadline.

The Executive Director – Resources drew members’ attention to page 47 in the report regarding the transfer to/from Earmarked Reserves as well as page 75 advising members that the Housing Revenue Account is required to be reported separately.

RESOLVED:

That Committee:

1. Considered and approved the updated draft Statement of Accounts for 2024/25. Unanimous Vote.

    

2. Delegate authority to the Chair of the Audit, Risk and Standards Committee along with the S151 Officer to approve the final Statement of Accounts for 2024/25 and can be signed off by 27th February 2026 should this be required. Unanimous Vote.

A presentation was given to the Committee by Debbie Hanson and Larisa Midoni (EY).

Debbie gave a brief overview of the report and outlined the different sections including work completed, results and findings, and value for money reporting.

Debbie advised that significant progress has been made with sets of accounts being published between October 2024 and February 2025. However, as a result of the disclaimer of opinion on the 2023/24 financial statements, EY did not have assurance over the brought forward balances from 2023/24. This means they do not have assurances over the 2024/25 in-year movements and the comparative prior year movements or assurance over the 2023/24 comparative balances disclosed in the 2024/25 financial statements. It was therefore anticipated that a disclaimed 2024/25 audit opinion would be issued. However, they have started to build assurance.

Debbie drew Members’ attention to the Executive Summary and advised that the overall materiality assessment had been updated to £2 million.

Four risks of significant weakness had been identified: arrangement for production of the Council’s statement of accounts; the Council’s counter fraud and corruption framework; arrangements for contract management and arrangements for the managements of accounts receivable. In addition, four additional VFM risks and four significant weakness had been identified.

It was also advised that the Annual Governance Statement does not clearly and adequately reflect all significant governance issues. It has been requested that management make changes to the AGS to address this.

 She also set out EY’s observations in relation to the areas of audit focus and drew attention to a new risk: risk of impairment of investments in Equinox subsidiaries in the Council’s single entity accounts. However, there was not enough time for the supporting information to be audited before the backstop date.

Debbie also advised that immediate steps should be taken to strengthen the governance, design and operational effectiveness of internal controls. She recommended that the control environment is strengthened; the monitoring and follow-up of Internal Audit findings is improved; training and resources for control owners at service levels is increased and collaboration between management and Internal Audit is strengthened. 

The Chairman reported that there was no other business being of sufficient urgency to warrant consideration at the meeting.