The Committee was provided with an update on External Audit matters including the reset and recovery arrangements for local audit within the local government sector and the position of Runnymede regarding outstanding audit work.

Members were informed that in order to tackle the backlog of external audit opinions a new initial backstop date of 13 December 2024 had been announced by the Minister of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government for financial years up to and including 2022/23.  For subsequent years the following dates were noted:

31 March 2024: 28 February 2025

31 March 2025: 27 February 2026

31 March 2026: 31 January 2027

31 March 2027: 30 November 2027

31 March 2028: 30 November 2028

Subject to parliamentary approval, the date by which local bodies should publish their draft (unaudited) accounts would be reverting back to 30 June each year from 2024/25 through to 2027/28.

The Committee was advised that the National Audit Office had very recently published a comprehensive set of Local Audit Reset and Recovery Implementation Guidance (LARRIGs).  Officers were familiarising themselves with it and had set out in the agenda report a summary of each of the 5 sets of guidance and the key points were also noted.  These concerned requirements of auditors and the various scenarios of issuing an audit opinion.  Members’ attention was drawn to LARRIG 3, in particular the distinction between a ‘disclaimer’ of opinion, a ‘qualified’ opinion and an ‘adverse’ opinion.

Officers reported that BDO had been in touch on the day of the meeting and had stated that the earliest they might be in position to provide their outstanding audit opinions was now late November 2024.  The Committee requested that Officers from BDO and Grant Thornton attend the next meeting with a progress report on meeting the back stop dates and any outstanding matters which might prevent BDO from issuing their 2019/20 audit opinion and Value for Money Statement.

The Committee was very disappointed that despite BDO’s stated intention to issue disclaimed opinions for 2020/21 – 2022/23 and not commence any audit work for these years, audit fees for these years would still be payable and were anticipated to be higher than wished for.  Therefore, Officers were asked to continue discussions with BDO and with the PSAA regarding fees for all outstanding years including the outcome of their determination of the 2018 fee variation request.

Officers confirmed that owing to Asset Management software errors they had been unable to meet the deadline to produce the statement of accounts for Grant Thornton, who were then unable to conduct audit fieldwork in line with the originally planned timescale.  The latest back stop date for the 2023/24 audit was 28 February 2025 and the associated risk implications of not meeting that date were noted.  Officers were unable to guarantee this would not happen but were working hard to avoid it.  It was also acknowledged that the wider picture of difficulties in recruiting auditors across the sector was an important contributory factor.  The Committee was pleased that Grant Thornton’s Officers were engaging well with the Council and with the handover from BDO, noting the key deliverables timetable.  Officers agreed to provide an update with finalising the Statement of Accounts for 2023/24.

The report was duly noted.