Issue - meetings

To receive a report setting out the draft Annual Planning Report for the external audit work that EY will carry out in respect of the 2025/26 external audit work.

The Committee received a report (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) presenting the draft Annual Planning Report for the external audit work that EY will carry out in respect of the 2025/26 external audit work.

The Audit Partner, Julio Camm, Ernst & Young LLP, set out the report and invited questions from the Committee.

In response to questions from the Committee, the Audit Partner advised that the firm had not identified instances of management override. Mark Hodgson of RSM advised that Auditors were alert to management overrides of control, and in the run-up to LGR, there was the potential for controls to be overridden so it was a live environment. Work around valuations on Pensions or Property, Plant and Equipment were areas where a significant amount of Audit time was required. Furthermore, he advised that for 2023/24, there were a significant number of items they were not able to obtain assurances on, however for 2024/25 there had been significant improvement, so the Council was moving in the right direction.

In response to a question from the Committee regarding the report stating that the Council’s progress fell behind the expected timescales, Mark Hodgson of RSM clarified that the Council fell behind in 2023/24 because they were unable to perform all audit procedures on that set of accounts having had a disclaimed audit opinion because of the back-stop that was imposed by the Government the year before. As a result, there were procedures that the firm were unable to do in 2023/24 when ordinarily they would expect full procedures to be done. 2024/25 was an improvement and there was only one area on Leases and the New Standard that it was not possible to complete. Furthermore, if the trajectory as set out in the report was followed, there was the potential for an unqualified audit opinion to be issued in 2026/27 or 2027/28, which would be before the Authority ceased to exist.

Whereupon, it was

RESOLVED

that the Committee commented and noted the External Auditor’s Annual Planning Report, set out at Appendix 1.