Agenda item

3:25

Report by the Chief Finance Officer (AG12).

The Accounts and Audit Regulations 2011 require the Chief Finance Officer to sign the Statement of Accounts no later than 30 June, and certify that they give a true and fair view of the County Council’s position. This report presents the accounts certified by the Chief Finance Officer to the Audit & Governance Committee for information, before the start of the public inspection period and the commencement of the audit. The Audit & Governance Committee will be asked to consider and approve the accounts at its meeting on 16 September 2015, when the findings of the audit are available.

An overview of the financial position of the Council at 31 March 2015 is contained in the explanatory foreword. A simplified summary of the accounts is attached at Annex 1. The full 2014/15 Statement of Accounts is attached at Annex 2.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to note:

(a)        the Summary Accounts 2014/15; and

(b)       the Statement of Accounts for 2014/15 to be submitted to the

Auditor.

The Accounts and Audit Regulations 2011 required the Chief Finance Officer to sign the Statement of Accounts no later than 30 June, and certify that they gave a true and fair view of the County Council’s position. The Committee had before it a report (AG12) which presented the accounts certified by the Chief Finance Officer to the Committee for information, before the start of the public inspection period and the commencement of the audit. The Committee would then be asked to consider and approve the accounts at its meeting on 16 September 2015, when the findings of the audit were available.

The Statement of Accounts was presented in accordance with the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting for 2014/15 and set out how much money the Council had spent on services, what it had invested in capital projects, how it had funded the expenditure and what it owned.   The accounts included various adjustments required to give a “true and fair view” of the total cost of providing services, rather than the amount to be funded from taxation.

Mrs Kathy Wilcox, Chief Accountant, presented the contents of the report and highlighted the summary accounts which provided a much simplified version of the accounts. This showed a deficit on the provision of services of just over £92m, which related to a loss on the disposal of assets due to the transfer of school land and buildings to academy trusts for nil consideration. 

After removing the effect of adjustments required to be included in the accounts under the Code but not impacting on the council tax and transfers from earmarked reserves, the County Fund Balance increased by £2.8m in 2014/15 as reported to Cabinet in the Provisional Outturn Report on 23 June.  The additional balances would be used to support the Medium Term Financial Plan.

The balance sheet provided a snapshot of the financial position of the Council on 31 March 2015.  It showed the value of the Council’s assets and liabilities and how those were matched by reserves and balances.   Net assets held by the council were £90m at the end of the year.  This compared to £271m at the end of 2013/14.  The largest element of the decrease in the council’s net worth reflected updated financial assumptions provided by the actuary about the council’s future pension liability in accordance with IAS19.  There was no immediate effect on council tax levels.

Earmarked reserves were £112m at the end of the year.  This includes £22m school balances, £44m held by directorates for agreed purposes and £31m capital reserves.   Further details about the movement in usuable and non – usable reserves was set out in the Movement in Reserves statement on page 155 of the Statement of Accounts.

The Council spent £95.4m on capital schemes during the year including  schemes like the Kennington Roundabout improvements, Broadband and improvements to schools.

The main changes the Code of Practice for 2014/15 related to the adoption of new or amended group accounting standards.   There was no impact on the accounts as there were no group relationships in 2014/15.    For 2015/16 group accounts would be required to show expenditure and income relating to the Local Enterprise Partnership which was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee on 1 April 2015.

The service expenditure analysis for Adult Social Care on page 188 of the accounts had been updated to reflect the new analysis that is required for 2014/15.

In relation to paragraph 15 of the report, members expressed the importance of ‘lessons being learnt’ from the restructure and welcomed the conclusion from the Monitoring Officer in paragraph 18 to the report.

In response to a question, Mrs Baxter confirmed that the Adult Social Care pressure would be picked up as part of the Resource & Planning process starting in September.

RESOLVED: to note the Summary Accounts 2014/15 andthe Statement of Accounts for 2014/15 to be submitted to the Auditor.