City of York Council (Logo)

Meeting:

Audit & Governance Committee

Meeting date:

31/07/2024

Report of:

Director of Finance (S151 Officer)

Portfolio of:

Councillors Lomas and Baxter (job-share),

Executive Members for Finance, Performance,

Major Projects, Human Rights, Equality and

Inclusion


Audit and Governance Committee Report: Annual Governance Statement 2023/24


Subject of Report

 

1.           The purpose of this report is to present for information the draft 2023/24 Annual Governance Statement. 

 

Policy Basis

 

2.           The Annual Governance Statement sits within the Council’s Statement of Accounts.  The production of the Council’s statement of accounts results from all of the council’s business processes and helps support the administration’s key commitments and priorities as outlined in the Council Plan 2023-2027.

 

Recommendation and Reasons

 

3.           That Audit & Governance Committee comment on and note the draft Annual Governance Statement for the financial year ended 31 March 2024.

Reason:  To ensure that Members have had the opportunity to review the draft Annual Governance Statement. 

 

Background

 

4.           The Accounts and Audit Regulations (2015) requires Local Authorities to publish draft Accounts by 31st May. Due to delays in prior year audits the majority of Local Authorities across the country signalled they would not meet this earlier deadline. At York Council, our draft Accounts were published on 7th June and were available for inspection on 10th June.

 

5.           The accounts include the Council’s Annual Governance Statement (AGS), following the annual review of the governance framework and processes.  Any significant control issues are identified within the AGS.

 

6.           The AGS is currently in draft, and some changes have already been made to the version that was published on 7th June.  These changes include details of the enforcement notice received from the Information Commissioner in respect of the backlog of Freedom of Information requests and the delay in publication of the 2022/23 AGS.

 

7.           Further updates, including the LGA peer review actions will be made before the statement is brought for approval later this year and   Members will be given a further opportunity to review the final version.

 

Contact details

 

For further information please contact the authors of this Report.

 

Author

 

Name:

Debbie Mitchell

Job Title:

Director of Finance

Service Area:

Corporate Finance

Report approved:

Yes

Date:

22/07/2024



Annexes

 

A – Draft Annual Governance Statement