A representative from the Council’s External Auditor will provide an update on the audit of the 2024/25 Statement of Accounts.

The Committee considered the draft Auditor’s Annual Report, which provided a summary of the findings and key issues arising from the 2024-25 audit of the Council. The report had been prepared in line with the requirements set out in the Code of Audit Practice published by the National Audit Office and was required to be published by the Council alongside the annual report and accounts.  The final report would be submitted to the Council meeting on 24 February 2026.

Jonathan Brown, KPMG, gave a verbal update at the meeting on progress with finalising the report.  He noted that the fundamental audit work was complete with a number of minor updates and corrections to be made to the draft report, which would be recirculated to members of the Committee.

The report explained that KPMG planned to issue a disclaimer of opinion on the financial statements on 27 February 2026.  This was in line with the audit plan and was because they had been unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence over the financial statements in respect of the opening balances and split of reserves, due to the issues identified previously regarding opening balances and the split of useable and unusable reserves.  The anticipated timeline for removing the disclaimer, as part of the national ‘Building Back Assurance’ work to address this issue, was outlined at the meeting.

The Committee discussed the two Value for Money recommendations set out in the report relating to the findings of the Joint Targeted Area Inspection and the Gifts & Hospitality and Declarations of Interest register and were provided with an update on their implementation.

Resolved –

(1)       That an updated copy of the Auditor’s Annual report be circulated to members of the Committee;

(2)       That any further feedback be sent to officers in finance to collate.