To report progress on the external audit of the council’s 2023/24 financial statements.

The Chief Accountant introduced the report, the principle points were noted:

·       The report updates the Committee on the Progress of the external audit of the draft financial statements for the year end, 31st of March 2024.

·       The draft financial statements were published in line with the statutory deadline of the 31st of May.

·       The audit had been able to begin three weeks earlier than planned and is progressing in line with the audit plan.

·       To date, no material errors had been found by the auditors in the draft financial statements.

·       Grant Thornton (GT) had committed to completing the external audit to enable them to present the audit findings report and opinion to this committee in September enabling the Council to publish the audited financial statements by the statutory deadline of the 30th of September.

The Senior Manager (SM), GT highlighted a change since the audit plan which had been caused by the increase in spend for the Council. Herefordshire had exceeded the £500m threshold and therefore resulted in being treated as a major local audit. Members would see an increase in areas of focus and samples in the audit and the audit findings report.

In response to committee questions, it was noted

1.     The scale fee is set by the Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA).

2.     The SM confirmed there was a team of 6 working on the audit and a large team behind that working on detail.

3.     An explanation of ISA 315 was provided. It was explained that there would be more focus on IT systems, understanding the controls and business processes. When the PSAA set the scale fee this had not come into place yet which was why it was outlined as an additional fee line within the report.

4.     With regards to preventing failure in local government the SM confirmed from attending previous meetings, viewing past minutes prior to joining she had no concerns with the functioning of the committee, that they challenged auditors and were risk focused.

5.     The Head of Strategic Finance highlighted that as part of GT’s value for money work, one of the key areas that is looked at is those charged with governance and the governance arrangements which includes the effectiveness of the role of audit and Governance Committee. To date the only recommendation made from GT was the appointment of an independent person on to the committee.

6.     The chair recommended councillors reading the councillor’s workbook on community leadership.

7.     The SM was meeting with the councils specialist grants team to check on the progress of the housing benefit subsidy certification and hoped this would be concluded in September.

Resolved that:

a)    The progress of the external audit of the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024 were noted.