Issue - meetings

To note the Government consultation on national arrangements for external audit of local government.

The Committee received a report from the Deputy Chief Executive on Spelthorne’s response to the consultation on external audit arrangements and reminded Councillors that a draft of the response had been circulated for comments and that the feedback received had been incorporated. The Deputy Chief executive advised that a primary concern was around the number of disclaimers that would be issued and how that would be communicated to external stakeholders. BDO would be producing five sets of draft statements of accounts and disclaimers, along with a value for money opinion which would be presented to this Committee in September.

The Committee requested if additional training could be provided to members prior to the September meeting and this was agreed.

The Committee queried whether they could have access to some of the CIPFA publications and were advised that this would be possible, however due to the volume of publications produced, the Committee would need to identify which ones they were interested in.

The Committee queried why the national backlog had occurred and were advised that there were several reasons; the large number of agencies involved, audit firm size, a limited number of audit partners with the ability to sign-off accounts, the increasing complexity of the Financial Reporting Council’s expectations, and capacity and experience challenges within audit companies and councils.

The Committee resolved to note the Government consultation on:

1. Reset
2. Recovery of national arrangements for external audit of local government

3.    Longer term reform of external audit recommendations.