Issue - meetings

To note the Annual Audit Letter for the year ended 31 March 2020 (report of EY enclosed).

Consideration was given to the 2019-20 Annual Audit Letter, produced by EY.

EY had advised that they were currently only attending hybrid meetings and as this was not possible at this meeting, the Audit Letter was presented by the Assistant Director Finance.

Members were reminded that in March 2021, the 2019/20 Statement of Accounts were audited and signed off, and this document was a summary of the key items from that audit, written in a more public facing way for the Council’s website.

There were no new messages within it, and the key matters were all reported to the Committee via the Audit Results Report.  It formally set out the dates that EY issued within the audit opinion and certificate, and thereby closed the 2019/20 audit year.

Members considered the information, and the following issues were raised:

·         Members commented that there had been a large increase in fees from 2018/19 to 2019/20, and the fees for 2020/21 were not yet known.  Why had the fee increase been so large?

o   Officers responded that there was an ongoing dialogue between the Authority and EY. 2019/20 was an exceptional year with work around Covid and additional testing requirements, and a breakdown of this additional testing had been received.  The Authority had agreed on areas of work around Covid-compliance, with other areas of work still under discussion.

AGREED:

That the 2019-20 Annual Audit Letter be noted.