Annual accounts and audit
The Statement of Accounts 2023/24
The Statement of Accounts 2023/24 presents the financial position of the Council for the year ending 31 March 2024 and includes the narrative report, and annual governance statement. The annual governance statement is signed by the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive and once approved by the Accounts, Audit and Risk Committee, is incorporated into the statement of accounts.
To address the historical backlog of audits in England, MHCLG implemented a series of backstop by which the accounts must have an audit opinion issued. Where audit firms are unable to complete the usual work required to give an unqualified opinion by these deadlines, they are required to issue a qualified or disclaimer opinion. This means that they have been unable to gain enough assurance on the accounts. If this is limited to a certain area of the accounts a qualified opinion may be given, however if they have not been able to complete the work on a variety of areas then a disclaimer opinion would be given. MHCLG expects there to be hundreds of disclaimer opinions issued to English local authorities as part of their plan to ‘reset’ the audit system.
MHCLG and the National Audit Office have also highlighted as part of the Local Audit Reset and Recovery Implementation Guidance that it is expected that the majority of councils where a disclaimer opinion has been issued for 2022/23 will continue to receive modified (disclaimer or qualified) opinions for the years 2023/24, 2024/25 and potentially 2025/26. There is still ongoing discussion amongst the sector leads as to the exact means to get back to unqualified audit opinions without creating another backlog.
Cherwell District Council is one of the councils affected by this, and as such received a disclaimer opinion from its previous external auditors, Ernst and Young, for the 2022/23 financial statements in November 2024. The disclaimer of the 2022/23 financial statements means that the council’s external auditors for 2023/24, Bishop Fleming, are unable to rely on the opening balances or comparative figures in the 2023/24 financial statements. As a result of the delays to the previous year’s audit, there has been insufficient time to complete the detailed audit procedures that would be needed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to issue an unmodified audit report on the 2023/24 financial statements before the 28 February 2025 backstop date. For this reason, they have issued a disclaimer opinion for the 2023/24 statement of accounts on 27 February 2025.
Jim McMahon, Minister of State for Housing, Communities and Local also stated as part of his letter to Chief Executives on 30 July 2024 – “local bodies should not be unfairly judged based on disclaimed or modified opinions caused by the introduction of backstop dates that are largely beyond their control”
Whilst a disclaimer opinion has been issued for the statement of accounts, Bishop Fleming completed the Value for Money assessment as usual and has given an unqualified opinion identifying no risk of significant weakness in the Council’s arrangements for securing value for money.
In accordance with Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 (Regulation 16 (1)) and the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 (Section 25) electors may inspect and may request copies of the accounts and other documents such as the local auditor’s opinion on the statement of accounts. The email address to make requests to inspect the accounts and related documents is finance@cherwell-dc.gov.uk. Alternatively, electors may visit the Council’s offices between 9am and 4pm Monday to Friday. An electronic copy of the statement of accounts is available in the link below.
The law requires that our statement of accounts is signed as approved by certain members and officers of the council and that the audit report is signed by the council's external auditor. A number of frauds have been carried out against bodies that publish signatures on the internet and for this reason the signatures of members and officers in our accounts have been removed.
Final Statement of Accounts 2023-24