Verbal Update
Minutes:
A copy of the report was tabled for Members at the meeting which replaced the verbal update.
The Director of Corporate Services provided the committee with an update on the preparation of the Authority’s 2024/25 unaudited financial statements and included the draft core financial statements for information; the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Account, Movement in Reserves Statement and Balance Sheet.
The Director of Corporate Services explained that for the financial year 2024/25, the draft accounts should have been published by the statutory deadline; 30 June 2025, and the audited accounts should have been made available by 30 September 2025. Unfortunately, this timeline would not be met due to reasons outside the organisations control, but the draft accounts would be published by 18 July 2025 following receipt of the North West Fire Control statements earlier in the month.
There was no requirement to present the unaudited accounts to the Committee before the external audit process commenced, however, to ensure the Committee was kept up to date with the process towards completion of the audited accounts, the draft core financial statements were included in Appendix 1.
The Accounts and Audit (England) Regulations 2015 applied to the preparation, approval and audit of the Statement of Accounts and other financial statements. The regulations were based on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) which attempted to standardise accounts in a consistent format across both the public and private sectors with the aim of achieving greater transparency. The table in the report summarised the adjustments required to the revenue outturn to reach the Total Comprehensive Income and Expenditure and reported in the financial statements.
The draft Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Account, Movement in Reserves Statement and Balance Sheet were set out in Appendix 1. Subject to changes as part of the Quality Assurance Processes, they would form part of the accounts for audit.
In response to a question from County Councillor Buckley in relation to the collection of uncollected council tax and how that affected the Fire Service, the DoCS explained that the financial statements reflected the reality of that and budgeting to manage throughout the year. Each district council provided an estimate of the level of council tax arrears expected over the coming year which was built into the council tax base. However, when the council tax base was set, district councils had a statutory responsibility to pay the amounts that had been agreed to be met. Uncollected council tax had a long-term effect on the amounts received by the Fire Service which, in turn, impacted on resources.
County Councillor Buckley queried whether the Fire Service took any action to help Councils with council tax collection. The DoCS advised that the Service was motivated in the same way as district councils although they had no legal responsibility to collect council tax and the responsibility was that of the councils. The Service had regular meetings with the Section 151 Officer where the collection of council tax was discussed, and the County Council had carried out a lot of work to maximise the amount of council tax collected. Regardless of the external factors which influenced the collection of council tax, there were no concerns from the Service about any individual Council’s performance in that area.
In response to a question from the Chair in relation to penalties for missing the statutory deadline for the draft accounts, the Director of Corporate Services confirmed there were no penalties, but the Service had to publish a notice on the final date it was due with an indication of the completion date.
The Chair asked whether training for Audit should be mandatory, especially with so many new Members who had not been Councillors previously and had no prior training. The DoCS stated that mandatory training would support assurance for the Service with regards to scrutiny, however, he understood how demanding Councillors roles could be and appreciated any feedback in relation to training. Laura Rix commented that it was standard when setting up new committees for Members to receive training, although currently, it was the Members and not the Committee which was new, but she felt training would represent best practice. County Councillor Buckley expressed concern with making training mandatory as that would limit the number of Councillors who could sit on the Committee as potential substitutes as they would also require training. The Chair requested that any future invites for training should stress the importance of being fully trained.
Resolved: That the committee noted the update with progress in preparing the unaudited Financial Statements; and noted the Authority’s draft core financial statements that would form part of the 2024/25 unaudited Financial Statements.