Issue - meetings

Report of the Director for Finance and Corporate Services

The Group were presented the Council’s statutory Statement of Accounts for the financial year 2021/22. 

The Group were advised that there had been a delay submitting the Statement of Accounts for approval due to issues outside the Council’s and the Auditors control. As with the previous year, the audit completion report was again delayed due to assurances in respect of the Pension Fund audit and an issue identified nationally relating to the treatment of infrastructure assets which had resulted in the delay to signing off the accounts until a decision had been made by CIPFA.

The Statement of Accounts 2021/22 were provided in Appendix A, and includes the Council’s Annual Governance Statement (AGS) at section B. This was agreed by the Leader and Chief Executive and was approved by Governance Scrutiny Group at it’s meeting on 30 June 2022.

Members asked specific questions in respect of inflation and how had this impacted on the Council’s capital expenditure. The Director – Finance and Corporate Services advised that the Bingham Hub and Crematorium have been delivered within budget. In addition, the Group were advised that contingency reserves are in place to mitigate financial shocks and were also informed that a more detailed Budget report will be presented at its Full Council meeting on 2 March 2023.

In respect of the Council’s pension liability, members were asked to note a graph showing the Council’s net worth over the past ten years, which shows a positive trend of an increase in net worth, with a downward turn in 2020/21 due to the impact of Covid-19 on pension values, with the net worth increasing in 2021/22 to £47m.

It was RESOLVED that the Governance Scrutiny Group approve the Statement of Accounts for 2021/22 (Appendix A) including the Annual Governance Statement at Section B.