The Chair opened the meeting by sending well wishes to all blue light responders involved in the Manchester incident, to the victims’ families and all those affected.

To consider any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Co-opted Member, Mr Anthony Boyle.

To consider any declarations of interest in relation to any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest in relation to any item on the agenda.

To consider the minutes of the last meeting held on 26^th June 2025.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the last meeting held on 26^th June 2025 be approved as an accurate record.

To consider the Forvis Mazars (MFRA External Auditors) Audit Strategy Memorandum 2024/25 (DFP/10/2526).

Director of Finance and Procurement, Mike Rea, introduced the report and reminded Members that they were presented the draft Audit Strategy Memorandum for the audit of the 2024/25 Statement of Accounts in June 2025. He invited the Audit Partner for Forvis Mazars, Karen Murray, to take Members through the report.

Karen Murray explained that there were some changes to the report since the last meeting which were primarily cosmetic changes with the exception of one being a newly identified significant risk. She informed Members that there had been a change in their team, with a new Assistant Manager joining to help with workload.

It was noted that Forvis Mazars received the Authority’s draft account at the end of June in line with the statutory timetable and after reassessing materiality, the expenditure had increased. She explained that the team set materiality based on expenditure.

Members were advised that there had been a new significant risk in the Authority’s accounts in respect of lease accounting as there had been a change in the accounting standard. She also advised that it was a risk as the amount could possibly change by a material value. Karen stated that she was not confident that the calculation was correct so was in conversations with the Authority’s Finance Team.

Karen confirmed that work was underway in terms of audit delivery and commended the Finance Team for being so helpful in the sample testing process.

The Chair, Councillor Jeanie Bell, thanked Karen for the excellent report and made reference to the amount of information surrounding significant risk and planned response.

Councillor Andrew Makinson queried the materiality threshold increase, noting that it had risen by 20% on the previous year’s levels, which was a significant amount and wanted to understand what the benefit was to the Authority and the taxpayer in increasing materiality by that amount.

Karen clarified that materiality was an accounting audit concept representing the threshold of error that could mislead a user of the accounts. The level was set to reflect the scale and context of the organisation. She reassured Members that Forvis Mazars applied an industry standard of 1-2% and due to the Authority’s strong control environment, solid arrangements and good track record, the higher end of the range was applied.

Members noted that these levels allowed auditors to test to a lower threshold to identify errors that may become material when aggregated. Karen confirmed that lower specific materiality was set for areas of high public interest. Karen explained that any errors exceeding performance materiality were raised with the Finance Team for correction; failure to amend the accounts would prevent the accounts from being signed off.

Karen noted that while errors below performance materiality may be left as unadjusted (provided they were not cumulatively material or indicative of fundamental issues), she expected the Authority to amend the Accounts, as that was what they had always done to maintain transparency.

Councillors were assured that anything above trivial would be reported to the Authority, however, anything below  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.