Agenda item

This report presents the Council’s draft 2020/21 Statement of Accounts to members of the Audit & Standards Committee for review.

Agenda republished to include this as a supplementary paper on 20/07/21.

Sin Yee Tang, Senior Finance Analyst, introduced a report presenting the Council’s draft 2020/21 Statement of Accounts.

As part of the presentation of the draft accounts the Committee noted:

·                The details included within the financial performance section of the accounts on the General Fund pressures related to the impact of Covid-19. The additional cost totalled £42m from the pandemic, which comprised £29.1m of additional expenditure and £12.9m in loss of income to services;

·                The increase (as detailed within the Income & Expenditure Statement) in expenditure on services during 2019/20.  This included a significant increase in costs relating to the HRA and reduction in income as a result of the pandemic;

·                The figures relating to account adjustments such as depreciation and repairs and gains and losses on property equipment;

·                The way in which emergency grant funding from central Government and Covid related underspends had been used to offset the costs and pressures identified in relation to the pandemic, as detailed within Table 1 of the accounts;

·                The increase in net pension liability, which had been based on principal assumptions used by the Council’s independent qualified actuaries as part of their last valuation of the Fund, and as detailed in Notes 37 & 38 accompanying the draft accounts;

·                The movement in reserves identified during 2020/21 as detailed and broken down within the core statements included within the draft accounts.

The Committee was then invited to raise questions on the report, which are summarised below:

·                A query was raised regarding the way in which the Covid and non Covid related overspend and underspends had been reflected within the Financial performance section of the accounts, with clarification provided that these had included (as was normal practice) planned expenditure on day to day services. 

·                In response to a question around outstanding levels of debt, members were advised that the narrative statement had reflected a reduction in performance related to debt collection but it was anticipated that as Covid restrictions were lifted collection rates and performance would return to normal levels.

·                Members also queried the reasons for the reported increase in housing benefits overpayments, to which Ravinder Jassar (Deputy Director of Finance) responded he would be able to provide more details outside of the meeting.

·                In response to a query raised in relation to the details provided on senior employees remuneration under the Employee Benefits section of the accounts, confirmation was provided that the Chief Executive was not part of the Local Government Pension Scheme which was the reason no employer pension contribution had been recorded. Whilst recognising the significant issues and pressures identified in relation to the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) members noted the intention to consider these in more detail as part of the later report on the Corporate Risk Register.

In concluding consideration of the draft statement of accounts, Paul Dossett (Grant Thornton – External Auditor) advised that at this stage there were no updates from the external auditors’ perspective.  Work had started on the external audit review of the accounts with the outcome due to be reported back at the next meeting.

The Chair, supported by Councillor McLennan (as Deputy Leader and Lead Member for Resources) ended the discussion by thanking the finance team for their efforts in preparing and submitting the draft accounts within the required timescale, given the other significant challenges arising from the pandemic and advised members that if they should have any further queries these could be submitted outside of the meeting for response.

As a result of the discussion at the meeting it was RESOLVED to note the contents of the report.