Accounts

Statement on Local Audit & Accountability Act 2014 Duties and Compliance.

Each year, on publication of the council’s draft accounts, there is a 30 day inspection period during which time any individual can ask to view a wide range of documents relating to the annual accounts. Any documents can be requested on any of the 30 days after publication. Irrespective of the day the request is made, the first day after publication or the 29th, the documents must be provided within the 30 day timeline.

In some cases the documents are hundreds of pages long and much information needs to be redacted. These requests are in addition to the data published online to support the transparency of accounts and finances.

The report to Full Council (13 December) outlines the reasons why the council has, in some instances, been unable to to provide the documents within the 30 day timeline - although they were subsequently provided.

The report highlights the wide range of documents requested and the resources required to meet requests.  In recent years, this has been a significant resource challenge for the organisation. For example, to meet the request on the 2021/22 accounts, it is estimated that it took the equivalent of three full time staff working for two weeks. However, there can be added complexity to meeting a request as documents are often not all in one place, and there is no way of knowing which documents may be required until the request comes in, so additional ad hoc days were needed from approximately 30 officers across various service areas adding an additional 70 - 80 hours.  All activity to meet requests must be met by existing budgets and the volume of work required often impacts the provision of services.

The council is taking all steps to ensure compliance, including investigating the cost of redaction software to speed up parts of the process. Despite mitigating action by the council, there remains a risk that if significant numbers of documents are requested within a few days of the end of the inspection period the council might be unable to respond fully within the period in future years.

Unlike Freedom of Information requests, there is no upper limit on what may be reasonable in terms of time and resources to meet requests.

The council has been liaising with the local government sector and in particular the Local Government Association to investigate the possibility of lobbying Government to effect a change in the law to provide consistency with Freedom of Information legislation.