Agenda item

7.1

The Committee received a report of the Council’s External Auditors, Ernst & Young.

7.2

Dan Spiller (Ernst & Young) mentioned that the reasons why EY were currently not ready to sign off the Council’s 2021/22 Statement of Accounts were outlined on page 5 of theirreport. He anticipated that they should be ready to sign off the Audit at the start of October 2023.

7.3

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

7.4

Dan Spiller explained that it was normal for the statutory audit of the Pension Authorityto be initially signed off before the pension fund auditors complete their reporting on the constituent authorities.

7.5

Councillor Fran Belbin thanked the Finance Teamand External auditors for their work throughout the year.

7.6

Dan Spiller explained that Infrastructure Assets were a significant risk area of their audit therefore EY did significant auditing in this area. He explained that due to CIPFA (Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) guidance, which was released in December 2022, not as much detail had to be reported relating to Infrastructure Assets.

7.7

Dan Spiller explained the £5.3m reported relating to PPE valuations may sound like a substantial figure, but based on the Council’s asset base in the billions, it is not significant in audit terms, it was more of an accumulation of errors.

7.8

Dan Spiller confirmed that as part of EY’s assessment, they do cross check against the RICS red book, the CIPFA Code and the International Financial Reporting Standards.

7.9

The Senior Finance Manager explained that on the asset base, the Council has an official de minimis of 10 thousand pounds and the Council’s valuers do look at all de minimis assets every year. The Council’s asset register captures all de minimis assets and is fully complete for both management purposes and reporting purposes.

7.10

RESOLVED: That the Audit & Standards Committee notes the Audit Results Report by External Auditors, Ernst & Young.