Councillor Grace welcomed Councillor Page to his first Audit Committee.

It was proposed that Item 4 and 5 would be swapped for ease of reading, which was agreed by Members.

To consider any apologies for absence.

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

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

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 September 2025.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the last meeting held on 26^th September 2024 be agreed as an accurate record.

To consider the 2023/24 Audit Completion Report (CFO/82/24).

Karen Murray, Audit Partner from Forvis Mazars introduced the Audit Completion Report, noting that it came out ahead of their audit completion. Members were advised that she expected to issue an unqualified opinion on the Fire Authority’s accounts once the Committee had concluded and once the Chair of Audit Committee, Councillor Grace and the Director of Finance and Procurement, Mike Rea, had signed the accounts and Mike Rea had signed the letter of representation.

It was acknowledged that Forvis Mazars had received a good set of accounts and supporting working papers at the start of their audit. Members were also advised of the support and detailed work provided by the Authority’s Finance Team throughout the course of the audit.

Members’ attention was drawn to the table on page 145 setting out the status of the audit in red, amber and green. The areas that had been completed were testing on journals, National Resilience assets and the accounting treatment of them and issues relating to the derecognition of assets.

Karen Murray advised that all information for Firefighters pensions had been received which had been tested, however, they had not yet been formally reviewed due to them only being received prior to this meeting. Furthermore, the IT audit work had also been completed.

It was raised that a small number of changes had been made to the accounts in order to be compliant. Karen confirmed that her team would write to the Authority after this meeting for record purposes.

There were no changes in materiality as it remained at £1.5million. Members attention was drawn to the risks that were reported in the Audit Plan and Audit Strategy Memorandum on page 149, confirming that she now had the assurance needed.

Karen reassured Members that Management Override of Controls was a risk in all organisations and was nothing to be worried about. It was confirmed that a large amount of testing had taken place, and they were satisfied with the outcome.

It was mentioned that pensions liabilities and assets reported was a risk due to relying on the actuary to provide information. Karen stated that some errors had arisen and that one had been amended relating to the asset ceiling calculation. A risk that had not been amended was on page 156 relating to pension fund accounts and the Authority’s share of that. Members were reassured that the Authority was not in control of this, meaning that no errors had taken place within the Service. She explained that these issues were as a result of pension fund accounts, timing issues and timing changes.

A risk which was mentioned at the planning stage was the valuation of property, plant and equipment which the Authority was reliant on valuers for in order to support their accounts. Karen advised that all work they had planned to do had been completed and she was comfortable with the assurance received.

As the Authority was the lead for National Resilience, Forvis Mazars looked at the treatment of National Resilience assets.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To consider the Statement of Accounts for 2023/24 and the approval of the audited Statements (CFO/84/24).

Director of Finance & Procurement, Mike Rea, introduced the report, taking Members to page 41 showing the ‘Balance Sheet’ table, noting that the reference within the table to ‘Pension Fund’ had been requested to change to ‘Pension Liability’ following advice from External Auditors.

Members’ attention was also drawn to page 43 of the agenda, under the ‘Accounting Policies and Roman Numeral V Prior Period Adjustments, Changes in Accounting Policies and Errors’. It was proposed this be moved out of ‘Accounting Policies’ to Note 44 on pages 89 – 90 of the Statement of Accounts.

On page 47 under the ‘Events after the Report Period’ section, the paragraph starting ‘The Court of Appeal has recently issued its judgement in the Virgin Media Case’ was to be moved to Note 40 within the Statement of Accounts.

Members were advised the final changes were on page 70 under ‘Financial Instruments’. The heading ‘PFI liabilities at amortised cost’ was to be removed and the totals updated. The balance for ‘Creditors at amortised cost’ was to be amended from £6,282 to £5,531 as of 31st March 2024. The ‘Non-financial instruments’ was amended from £7,029 to £7,780 as of 31st March 2024. It was explained that the figures at the end of 31st March 2023 was also to be restated to take into account these amendments. Confirmation was received that the overall totals had not changed. A copy of the updated Statement of Accounts with the proposed amendments was shared with Members.

Members were informed that the main financial statements in terms of the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement, Movement in Reserves Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement had not changed as a result of these amendments.

Councillor Grace recommended the changes proposed by Mike Rea be adopted asked if Members agreed that the updated Statement of Accounts explained by Mike were to be reflected in the publicised Statement of Accounts. This action was seconded by Councillor Murray and agreed by Members.

The report was presented, noting that the Authority was required to prepare a set of annual financial statements in a format that was set out under the relevant Accounting Codes and Standards, which must then be approved and signed off for publication by the Authority.

Members were advised that the public Statement of Accounts must include any certificate or opinion entered by the External Auditor, Forvis Mazars, on whether the statements gave a true and fair view of the financial position of the Authority and had been prepared in accordance with the relevant Code of Practice.

The attention of Members was drawn to paragraphs 10 – 25 on pages 11 – 16 of the report which gave background to the four core financial statements in the Statement of Accounts and explained the changes from the figures in the previous year. It was also noted that paragraph 20 outlined the Balance Sheet movements between 2022-23 and 2023-24 and the movements on the Authority’s assets and liabilities.

It was acknowledged that the Code and Regulations required  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To consider a report on the progress of Internal Audit (CFO/83/24).

Director of Finance and Procurement, Mike Rea, introduced the report, stating that three audits had been completed up to January 2025, one from the 2024-25 plan and two from the previous years’ audit plans that were not finalised at the time of the annual audit opinion in September 2024. It was advised that the remaining work had commenced and would be completed as planned in quarter four. This would allow Internal Audit to review how systems and controls had operated over the majority of the financial year. Mike explained that the year-end Internal Audit Plan report would go to Members for their consideration in May.

Jonathan Brookman, the lead Internal Auditor, noted that section two on page 193 of the report detailed the audit work that had been completed up to January 2025. Members were advised that some work had taken place at the Training and Development Academy on the charging model, which was being reviewed. It was explained that the current auditing progress and work to be completed in the coming months was detailed in section three of the report which was on page 195. Jonathan noted that they were awaiting a date from payroll to commence the core financial systems reviews. The expenses audit was due to start in the coming weeks and it was confirmed that the working papers were set up.

Councillor Murray queried whether the charging model was used to calculate how much the Authority charged external bodies to use the facilities. Jonathan confirmed that this was correct and explained that the costs recovery model was being reviewed to ensure all costs relevant had been captured.

RESOLVED that the contents of this report be noted.

Close

Date of next meeting Thursday, 26 June 2025