Agenda item

5.1

The Committee received a report of the Director of Finance and Commercial Services, Ryan Keyworth which provided Members of the Committee with a summary of the 2021/22 Unaudited Statement of Accounts and explained the core statements and several of the key notes to the accounts.

5.2

The Director of Finance and Commercial Services explained that Local Authorities were required to submit their statement of accounts by the 31 July 2022. The accounts then go through an inspection period which lasted 6 weeks. It was anticipated that the accounts would be ready for sign off, by the Committee, at a later meeting in the year.

5.3

The Director of Finance and Commercial Services referred to the (Surplus) on Income and Expenditure Statement figure of £362 million. It was mentioned that this surplus figure was driven by changes in balance sheet valuations, primarily related to the Council’s share of the South Yorkshire Pension Fund and changes in the valuations of land and property.

5.4

Members of the Committee asked questions and the following responses were provided: -

5.5

The Director of Finance and Commercial Services explained that due to the way the Council was funded, the Council tended to be very cash positive and funded ahead of time. It was added that this was different to how private sector organisations and Universities operated.

5.6

The Director of Finance and Commercial Services stated that as of the 31 March 2022, the Council had approximately £300m in reserves. The Budget report that was presented to Full Council in March set out the details of reserves in more depth.

5.7

The Director of Finance and Commercial Services explained that the cash flow statement was a critical compliant statement as it explained the movement in cash balance from one year to the next.

5.8

The Director of Finance and Commercial Services mentioned that Audit firms were having difficulty recruiting people due to the challenges of Local Government auditing.

5.9

The Director of Finance and Commercial Services agreed to provide a response on how the Housing Revenue Account expenditure was comparable to previous years.

5.10

The Director of Finance and Commercial Services informed the Committee that there was a high chance that the external audit will not be completed by the 30 November 2022 deadline. Although, he anticipated that this would not cause any significant impact.

5.11

RESOLVED: That the Audit & Standards Committee noted the core statements and the key notes to the Unaudited Statement of Accounts for 2021/22.