0522
The External Auditor of Bishop Fleming presented Members with recommendations made under section 24 schedule 7 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 in relation to the late production of the 2023/24 Statement of Accounts.
Members of the Audit and Standards Committee were already aware that production of the Authority's 2023/24 Statement of Accounts had been delayed, which was partially due to the length of time that it had taken the previous Auditors (Grant Thornton) to complete the 2021/22 and 2022/23 Audits. Members noted that this was part of the much wider problems across the sector.
Unfortunately the proposed Recovery Plan outlined to the Audit and Standards Committee in January 2025 had not been achieved as quickly as hoped and as a consequence the Accounts had not been completed by the statutory backstop date of 28 February 2025. Bishop Fleming were therefore now obliged to issue a statutory notice under Section 24 schedule 7 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014.
Members noted that other than changes that resulted from the time delays, the audit of both 2021/22 an 2022/23 Statements had been signed off materially unchanged from the Draft Accounts produced by the statutory deadlines. There were no underlying issues with the production of the statements, but rather the chronological consequences of a series of unfortunate events that required several re-calculations of the prepared core Statements.
It was further noted that the backstop date for Audits up to 2022/23 was December 2024, which had been achieved, however the time it took had impacted on the ability to achieve the 2023/24 backstop date of February 2025. Failure to do this had now resulted in a disclaimed audit opinion and the audit would cease.
Going forward, the Auditors will be expected to commence the 2024/25 audit as normal, with reference back to the un-audited elements of prior years. It was expected that the 2023/24 Accounts would be completed before the end of March 2023/24 and that 2024/25 Statements would be completed well before the relevant statutory backstop date.
The Chief Fire Officer assured Members that the Authority had a good track record of producing accurate accounts, there were no underlying weaknesses and took full responsibility for the Accounts not being published on time.
RESOLVED that the Authority:
i) Noted and accepted the Auditor's recommendations in full;
ii) Noted that Officers would be able to respond to the recommendations without further action from the Authority and that additional short-term resources would be brought in to increase capacity, if available;
iii) Delegated to the Treasurer to agree a deadline for production of the 2023/24 Accounts with the Auditor; and
iv) Confirmed that the current accounting software remained fit for purpose.