The Senior Finance Business Partner introduced a report of the Director of Finance which presented the draft unaudited Statement of Accounts for 2022-23 alongside the draft Annual Governance Statement for 2022-23. The Statement of Accounts set out the Council’s financial position as at the 31 March 2023, along with a summary of its income and expenditure for the year ended 31 March 2023. The Annual Governance Statement reflected key governance issues up to the date of the approval of the annual statement of accounts, and therefore a final version was to be reported to the Committee in

September 2023 for approval along with the final version of the Council’s financial statements. It was noted that the draft Annual Governance Statement was published on the Council’s website within the statutory deadline of 31 May 2023. However, due to an uncontrollable delay in receiving actuarial reports from external sources, the draft unaudited Statement of Accounts were published on the Council’s website on 2 June 2023.

Resolved – That

1.  The draft, unaudited Statement of Accounts for 2022/23 be noted; and

2.  The Annual Governance Statement for 2022/23 be noted and approved, including the actions planned in 2023/24 to address the two significant governance issues identified from this year’s annual governance review.