The Senior Finance Manager introduced the report of the Director of Resources which presented the draft unaudited Statement of Accounts, Financial Management Code assessment, an update on changes to the accounts and the draft Annual Governance Statement for 2021/22 to the Audit and Risk Management Committee. The Statement of Accounts set out the Council’s financial position as at the 31 March 2022, along with a summary of its income and expenditure for the year ended 31 March 2022. The Annual Governance Statement was to reflect key governance issues up to the date of the approval of the annual statement of accounts, and therefore a final version would be reported to the Committee in January 2023 for approval along with the final version of the Council’s financial statements. The opinion was that the Council’s governance arrangements overall were effective.

Members discussed the update and the deadline dates for subsequent years and the risks of reporting late.

Resolved: That

(1). the draft, unaudited Statement of Accounts for 2021/22 be noted.

(2). Finance Management Code for 2021/22 be noted.

(3). the draft Annual Governance Statement for 2021/22 be approved, including the actions planned in 2022/23 to address the two significant governance issues identified from this year’s annual governance review.

(4). the changes to the draft Accounts as set out in appendix 5 be noted.