These regulations apply to all local government smaller authorities including:
- Local councils (including parish, town, village and community councils and parish meetings
- Internal drainage boards
- Other smaller authorities such as charter trustees, port health authorities, conservation bodies, harbour boards and crematorium boards.
Authorities must have approved and published accounts before the first working day of July (1 July 2023). The relevant part of the AGAR should be sent to Moore for audit by 30 June 2024.
As soon as the accounts are formally approved by the Council and all documents are signed by the relevant parties you can send us the AGAR along with the supporting documents necessary and the dates intended for the Notice of Public Rights Period.
We can then perform our review of the accounts and, once the Notice of Public Rights Period ends, and assuming no objections have been made, we can then sign off the audit. This will help make the process run efficiently.
An additional charge of £40 plus VAT will be incurred if Moore is required to send a reminder to any authority.
Yes but note that the £25k threshold is based on gross amounts (VAT included). While there is no requirement for authorities in this situation to have a Limited Assurance Review they may request one.
In these circumstances the authority should not certify itself as exempt, i.e. not complete a Certificate of Exemption, but instead complete Part 3 of the AGAR 2023/24 and return it to Moore for review.
The cost to the smaller authority for the review will be £210 + VAT.
In relation to the AGAR, smaller authorities are required to publish on their public website
before 1
July 2024 the following information:
If completing Part 1
- A copy of the Certificate of Exemption and Declaration of No Accounts
If completing Part 2
- Certificate of Exemption
- Annual Internal Audit Report 2023/24 (recommended)
- AGAR Section 1 – Annual Governance Statement 2023/24
- AGAR Section 2 – Accounting Statements 2023/24
- Analysis of variances
- Bank reconciliation
- Notice of the period for the exercise of public rights and other information required by Regulation 15 (2), Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015.
- Name and address of the External Auditor
If completing Part 3
- Annual Internal Auditors Report 2023/24 (recommended)
- AGAR Section 1 – Annual Governance Statement 2023/24
- AGAR Section 2 – Accounting Statements 2023/24
- A declaration that the accounts are as yet unaudited
- Notice of the period for the exercise of public rights and other information required by Regulation 15 (2) Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015.
- Name and address of the External Auditor
Additionally, in relation to
AGAR Part 3 only smaller authorities are required to publish on their public website
after conclusion of the exercise of public rights but
before 1st October 2024 the following information:
- AGAR Section 1 – Annual Governance Statement 2023/24
- AGAR Section 2 – Accounting Statements 2023/24
- AGAR Section 3 – The External Auditor Report and Certificate (if issued) together with a Notice of Conclusion of Audit.
It is recommended as best practice that you also publish the Annual Internal Audit Report to avoid any potential confusion by local electors and interested parties.
The statutory requirements for 2023/24 in regards to the Period for the exercise of Public Rights are the following:
- The smaller authority itself must notify the electorate of a single period of 30 working days during which their public rights may be exercised. This is done by publishing (including on the Council’s website) the relevant Notice of Announcement (Notice) and Sections 1 & 2 of the approved AGAR at least one day before the commencement of that period. This Notice must be dated when it is published. The relevant notice is one of either: Notice of Public Rights & Publication of Unaudited Annual Governance & Accountability Return for those subject to our review or Notice of Public Rights & Publication of Annual Governance & Accountability Return (Exempt Authority) for exempt authorities.
- This period for the exercise of public rights is clearly defined in structure and must be for 30 consecutive working days of July (i.e. 1 to 12 July inclusive this year).
- Therefore, the period for the exercise of public rights may be exercised:
- at the earliest, between Monday 3 June and Friday 12 July 2024: and
- at the latest, between Monday 1 July and Friday 9 August 2024.
- Please ensure the announcement notice is placed/published/uploaded, together with the supporting documentation, no later than one day before the commencement of the inspection period.
- All authorities subject to a review must inform us, as external auditors, of the 30 working day period chosen whether it is our suggested period or alternative dates. please note that this period must be exactly 30 working days, therefore please do not set dates that cover a longer period.
- When calculating your inspection period, the strict 30 working day period must exclude weekends and bank holidays. If the statutory requirements above are not complied with, we must report this in Section 3 of the AGAR.
If an elector has a question about or wants to challenge any item on the accounts, you should direct them in the first instance to the National Audit Office (NAO) publication - Local Authority Accounts: A guide to your rights
The SAAA guidance advises: “The completed and signed AGAR when published on a website is by necessity a scanned document, and scanned documents by definition cannot be made accessible. Therefore to comply with the Accessibility Regulations all that is needed is a note stating that the completed AGAR is a scanned document.”