Statement of Accounts, Budgets and Annual Audit

A list of the Statement of Accounts and our Annual Audit.

2023/24 Statement of Accounts

Delays to the publication of draft accounts, public inspection, audit and publication of audited accounts – year ended 31 March 2024

Each financial year East Herts Council is required to produce and publish a draft set of accounts, allow public inspection of the draft accounts, have the draft accounts audited and to subsequently publish the final audited set of accounts.

The deadlines set under regulation for the accounts prepared for the 2023-24 financial year are:

• publish draft set of accounts one day prior to the start of public inspection
• public inspection to start no later than 1 June 2024 for a period of 30 working days
• completion of audit and publication of audited accounts by 30 September 2024

Public inspection for 2023/24 has been delayed whilst we finalise our unaudited draft accounts. The production of our accounts is taking longer than the regulations allow due to the complexity of local authority reporting requirements and resourcing issues. The audit of the 2021/22 Statement of Accounts has yet to be finalised and the audit of 2022/23 has not yet commenced. We continue to engage with our external auditors and will announce when the accounts are open for inspection through all the standard channels in due course.

Completion of the audit and the publication of audited accounts will also be delayed.

2022/23 Statement of Accounts:

The external audit of the draft statement of accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023 has not yet been completed by our external auditors, EY LLP, due to the planned phased approach to delivering the 2022/23 audits in light of a variety of complex factors contributing to audit delays in previous years. We continue to engage with our external auditors and will announce when the accounts are open for inspection through all the standard channels in due course.

The draft accounts can be found below:

• Draft Statement of Accounts 2022-23
• 2022/23 Annual Governance Statement - Agenda Item 166
• Public Inspection Period 2022-23

2021/22 Statement of Accounts & audit

• Letter received from EY regarding the audit of the 2021/22 accounts.
• Public inspection period 2021/22  
• Draft statement of Accounts 2021/22  
• 2021/22 Annual Governance Statement - Agenda Item 165

2020/21 Statement of Accounts and Audit Opinion

• Final Audit Opinion 
• Letter of Representation 2020-21
• Audit Certificate 2020-21

Previous Years

• Our Budget explained 2019-20
• Statement of Accounts 2019-20
• Letter of Representation 2019-20
• Letter of Representation 2018-19
• Statement of Accounts 2018-19
• Statement of Accounts 2017-18 [1MB]
• Letter of representations 2017-18 [582KB]
• Statement of Accounts 2016/17 [3MB]
• Letter of representations 2016/7 [608KB]
• Statement of Accounts 2015/16 [936KB]
• Statement of Accounts 2014/15 [910KB]
• Statement of Accounts 2013/14 [742KB]
• Statement of Accounts 2012/13 [664KB]
• Statement of Accounts 2011/12 [916KB]
• Statement of Accounts 2010/11 [804KB]
• Statement of Accounts 2009/10 [596KB]
• Statement of Accounts 2008/9 [800KB]

Local Government Finance Peer Challenge

The Council’s Executive requested that the LGA undertake a Finance Peer Challenge at East Herts to validate if the council is making appropriate decisions regarding capital projects, reserves, and asset management. This will support the new joint administration in making informed decisions going forward.

FPC Final Report