Report by Director of Finance

The Director of Finance submitted a report setting out at Appendix 1 the Statement of Accounts 2024/25 for approval.

The report noted that the Council was responsible for approving the annual Statement of Accounts. This included placing reliance on the work of the Council’s Internal Audit Team, the external auditor KPMG and the work of the Audit and Governance Committee to focus on the adequacy of governance, risk and control arrangements that were in place, and that any issues arising were managed and resolved by the Council’s senior managers.

The report stated that KPMG was expected to issue a ‘disclaimed’ audit opinion by the statutory backstop date of 27 February 2026 in line with the Government’s approach to recovering from the national backlog in audit opinions.  Any adjustments identified during the audit had been corrected, and there were no matters arising from the public inspection period which was now closed.

The report explained that the accounts were disclaimed purely as a result of KPMG having insufficient time to provide assurance on ‘unaudited’ opening balances and split of reserves before the backstop date.  A full audit for 2024/25 had been undertaken and there were no significant issues arising.

The following motion was moved by Councillor Emberson and seconded by Councillor Terry and CARRIED:

Resolved –

(1)       That the 2024/25 Statement of Accounts be approved;

(2)       That the Director of Finance (as S.151 Officer) be authorised to make minor amendments to the 2024/25 Statement of Accounts, in consultation with the Lead Councillor for Corporate Services and Resources.