Issue - meetings

to note the content of the report and the attached External Audit Plan 2024/25.

The Committee had before it a report by the External Audit Director which presented the External Audit’s Annual Audit Plan for the 2024/25 audit.    

The report recommended:-

that the Committee review, discuss and comment on the issues raised within this report and the attached appendix.   

In relation to a question regarding liabilities that may arise and the high materiality level and how these were dealt with, the External Audit Director advised that a key part of external audit’s work was to look at what the Council had included as a provision in their accounts, whether it was a contingent liability that is disclosed but due to circumstances may not be able to be quantified.   He further advised that external audit pay close attention to this to ensure that they were comfortable with the Council’s judgement.

In response to a question regarding the audit of registered Charities and whether all trusts would be audited, the External Auditor advised there was a set number of charities where the Council were the trustee and those came under the legislation for auditing purposes.  The Chief Officer – Finance advised that there were a number of registered charities where all 45 Councillors were trustees.  The Interim Chief Officer – Governance advised that individual Trusts where Councillors are appointed as Trustees were different to those where all Councillors were classed as the Trustee.

In response to a question regarding whether a list of the Trusts and Charities could be provided to show which ones were included, the Chief Officer – Finance advised that those registered charities where the Council were the Trustees had been included in the papers and those were the ones subject to the separate audit process.

The Committee resolved:-

to note the content of the report and the attached External Audit Plan 2024/25.

-        COUNCILLOR M.T MALIK, Convener