As a Parish Council, we have a statutory duty through the Local Audit & Accountability Act 2014 and the Accounts & Audit Regulations 2015 to inform our residents and tax payers how we spend our money in respect of our accounting and auditing procedures. We do this in a number of ways:

At every Parish Council meeting (excluding extradordinary meetings), the Parish Councillors review and approve all of the invoices that are scheduled for payment. These payments and the amounts requested are shown on the agenda under the relevant agenda item. Councillors also receive and approve bank reconciliations and also approve budget monitoring each quarter.

Each year, an internal auditor is appointed by the Council to review the accounts and all aspects of internal financial control. The internal auditor (who is strictly independent from the Council) then reports findings back to the Council and signs the auditors annual report on the Annual Governance and Accountability Review (AGAR) to highlight issues or to confirm that the council’s system of control is competent and operating transparently.

There were changes made to the external auditing process in 2017. Any Parish Council with expenditure less than £25,000 are now subject to the requirements within the Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities and are eligible to exempt themselves from an external audit. The reasoning behind the change has been driven by local residents are best placed to monitor the Council and to bring them to account. The internal audit will still be undertaken and the Council are still required to publish the same amount of documentation as in prior years. 

If you are a registered local government elector (i.e. you appear on the electoral register for the area covered by the Council) you have legal rights to inspect, ask questions about and challenge items in your council's accounts. For more information, the National Audit Office has published a guide - Council Accounts - a guide to your rights

Please click this link to see the 2022-2023 Public Rights Notice