Annual accounts and audit
The Statement of Accounts 2023/24
Cherwell District Council published its unaudited Statement of Accounts on 31 May 2024. The Chair of the Accounts, Audit and Risk Committee approved the 2023/24 Annual Governance Statement and 2023/24 Accounting Policies on 29 May 2024 and 20 March 2024.
The draft 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 draft Statement of Accounts is unaudited and may be subject to change. The external audit of the draft statement of accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023 has not yet been completed by our external auditor, Ernst & Young LLP. As a result, the comparative figures in the draft Statement of Accounts 2023/24 may be subject to change following the completion of the audit of the Statement of Accounts 2022/23.
The period for the exercise of public rights will commence at 9am on Monday 3 June 2024 and conclude at 4pm on Friday 12 July 2024.
Details of its availability are contained in the Public Inspection Notice.
Michael Furness Assistant Director of Finance (S151 Officer)
Draft Statement of Accounts 2023-24
The Statement of Accounts 2022/23
The Statement of Accounts 2022/23 presents the financial position of the Council for the year ending 31 March 2023 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.
It has been widely acknowledged by parties across the local authority audit system in England that there is backlog of unaudited accounts. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) estimated that the backlog was as high as 900 outstanding audits across English councils as at September 2024. This backlog has arisen due to a variety of factors including:
- impact of Covid-19,
- capacity in audit firms,
- increasing regulatory pressure on audit firms to complete more work, and
- new auditing standards being issued.
To address the backlog, MHCLG implemented a ‘backstop date’ of 13 December 2024, by which all audits for the years up to and including 2022/23 must have an opinion issued. Where audit firms are unable to complete the usual work required to give an unqualified opinion by this deadline 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 by the 13 December as part of their plan to ‘reset’ the audit system.
Cherwell District Council is one of the councils affected by this, and as such has received a disclaimer opinion from its auditors, Ernst and Young LLP, for the 2022/23 financial statements. This opinion was issued on the 27 November 2024. As part of their opinion Ernst and Young stated the following:
“The backstop date and the wider requirements of the local audit system reset, meant we did not have the required resources available to complete the detailed audit procedures that would be needed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to issue an unmodified audit report on the 2022/23 financial statements. Therefore we are disclaiming our opinion on the financial statements.”
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 was issued for the statement of accounts, Ernst and Young 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.
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 received 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.
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 at Bodicote House, Bodicote, Banbury, OX15 4AA 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 2022-23