untitled

Local government
July 2006
Councils’
accounts
Your rights:
England

2
Councils’ accounts | Your rights
Councils exist to serve the public. Most have helplines
and helpdesks to help local people sort out problems
they may have with services, benefits and local taxes
and charges. But, even in the best councils, things can
go wrong. This booklet summarises your rights to
inspect, question and challenge councils’ accounts. It
starts with a short outline and then gives you more
details if you want to know more. We have produced this
booklet to help you, but it is only a guide.
This booklet describes how you can inspect, ask the auditor
questions about, or object to your council’s accounts.
However, you may want to raise other issues about how the
council is run. This section aims to help you find the right
person to deal with your query.
If you think something has gone wrong at your council, you
should:
G
phone the council;
G
write to the chief executive – in local councils (see note 1
below) this is the clerk; or
G
contact your local councillor.
Most councils have their own complaints system which is
usually effective. Nearly all complaints are sorted out, either in
writing or over the phone, so that everyone involved is
satisfied. But occasionally there are problems that someone
else needs to deal with.
G
If you think that your council has done something wrong,
and you are not satisfied with how the council has dealt
with your complaint, you should contact a Local
Government Ombudsman. There are three local
government ombudsmen. If you need more information or
want to make a complaint, call the Adviceline on 0845
Note 1: Local councils includes parish councils, town councils, joint
committees of these organisations and parish meetings.

Councils’ accounts | Your rights
3
602 1983 or visit their website at www.lgo.gov.uk. They
will send you some information about how you can take
your complaint further, and their names and addresses
are at the end of this booklet. The Ombudsman cannot
deal with complaints about local councils (see note 1
above).
G
If you suspect fraud or improper use of the council’s
money, you should write to or phone the council’s chief
internal auditor. Your council will give you their name and
address. If you have evidence of fraud, you may want to
consider contacting the police.
G
For all councils, if you think that a council member’s
behaviour has fallen below the high standards that public
servants are expected to meet, you should contact the
Local Government Standards Board for England. They
have a helpful website
(http://www.standardsboard.co.uk/) and their names and
addresses are also provided at the end of this booklet.
The Standards Board may not hear complaints about a
council’s officers or other employees.
G
If you have a personal complaint or claim against the
council, you should get advice from your local citizens
advice bureau, local law centre or your solicitor. Your
auditor has no powers in these circumstances.
G
If you want to inspect your council’s accounts, your
council will make arrangements for you to do so. The
auditor cannot help you with this.
G
If, after inspecting the accounts, you want to ask
questions or challenge your council’s accounts, the
council’s external auditor may be able to help you. The
Audit Commission appoints the external auditor.
We explain these options in more detail under the enquiries
section of our website at www.audit-commission.gov.uk
/aboutus/contact.asp. We also explain the ways in which
you can challenge or ‘object to’ your council’s accounts.

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Councils’ accounts | Your rights
By law, your rights and the external auditor’s powers are
limited. If you are thinking about going to the auditor, it is
important that you understand your rights and the auditor’s
powers. This booklet should help you. You can find out who
the appropriate auditor is, and where to write or phone, by:
G
phoning your council;
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downloading the appropriate page from our website
(http://www.audit commission.gov.uk/aboutus/what
audit.asp?title=Audit);
G
phoning the Audit Commission on 020 7828 1212; or
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e mailing auditissues@audit commission.gov.uk.
Your rights: a summary
The basic position
If you just want information about the council’s spending, the
easiest way to get the relevant information is to ask the
council. You can ask the council for information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. You can get more
information about your rights under this act from The
Information Commissioner’s helpline on 01625 545 7000. Or,
visit their website at www.ico.gov.uk.
You also have the right, at any time, to let the council know
about any matter that concerns you about their accounts.
You may also let the auditor know your concerns at any time.
At certain times in the year, you have a right to inspect your
council’s accounts in detail. During this time, local voters may
also ask the auditor questions about or challenge the
accounts.

Councils’ accounts | Your rights
5
The right to inspect the accounts
G
When your council has finalised its accounts for the
previous financial year, usually towards the end of June, it
must advertise that they are available for people to look at.
You then have 20 working days to look through the
accounts and supporting documents if you want to use
your right to question the auditor or object to the
accounts. You can get copies of the accounts and
relevant documents from your council.
G
You may not inspect documents that are not relevant to
the accounts or are otherwise legally protected. You may
have to pay a copying charge.
G
The right to inspect the accounts and supporting papers
is granted to people who vote in local elections and the
council must allow you to do so. However, if you have
problems getting this information, the auditor is not able to
get involved on your behalf.
The right to ask the auditor questions about
the accounts
G
You can only ask the auditor questions about an item in
the accounts for the year that they are auditing.
G
The auditor can only answer ‘what’ questions and not
‘why’ questions. In other words, he or she does not have
to answer questions about the council’s policies, finances,
procedures or anything else that is not relevant to an item
in the accounts. The auditor does not have to say, at this
stage, whether they think something the council has done
or an item in its accounts is unlawful.

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Councils’ accounts | Your rights
The right to object to the accounts
G
If you think that the council has spent money unlawfully,
you can object to the accounts by sending the auditor a
formal ‘notice of objection’, which has to be in writing. To
help you, there is a form available at
www.audit-commission.gov.uk/aboutus/contact.asp,
which you should print out, fill in and send to us at the
address on the form. We will then pass it to your council’s
external auditor. You must also send a copy to the council.
An objection must be about a specific item or items in the
accounts.
You must tell the auditor why you are objecting, which item in
the accounts you are objecting about and why you think it is
unlawful. You must also say what evidence you have to
support your objection.
If the auditor agrees to consider your objection, he or she
must reach a decision on it, which may include not taking any
further action, and provide a statement of reasons if you ask
them to. If you are not happy with that decision, you can
appeal to the courts.
G
You may also object if you think that there is something in
the accounts that the auditor should tell the public about
in a ‘public interest report’. Again, you must set out which
item in the accounts you are concerned about and why,
and your supporting evidence in writing. The best way to
do this is to print out and fill in the form at www.audit-
commission.gov.uk/aboutus/contact.asp and send it to
us at the address on the form. We will then pass it onto
your council’s external auditor. You must also send a copy
to the council.
The auditor must decide whether to take any action. The
auditor will normally give reasons for their decision and you
cannot appeal to the courts.

Councils’ accounts | Your rights
7
What else you can do
At any time, you can give the auditor information that is
relevant to their responsibilities. For example, you can tell the
auditor if you think that something is wrong with the accounts
or about waste and inefficiency in the way the council runs its
services. You do not have to follow any set time limits or
procedures. This is also the situation for NHS organisations,
where you do not have the right to inspect the accounts, ask
the auditor questions about or object to the accounts. The
auditor does not have to give you a detailed report of any
investigation into the issues you have raised, but they will
usually tell you the general outcome.
A final word
Councils, and so local taxpayers, generally meet the costs of
responding to questions and objections. Auditors will
consider valid objections but will take account of a range of
factors in deciding how to deal with them. Under the Code of
Audit Practice, which sets out how auditors must carry out
their work, auditors must take a balanced approach in
deciding how much time and money they should spend in
investigating an objection. They will consider:
G
how significant the subject matter is;
G
whether there is wider public interest in the issues raised;
G
the costs of dealing with the matter, as these have to be
paid directly by the taxpayer; and
G
in the case of objections, not only your rights as an
objector, but also the rights of the council.

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Councils’ accounts | Your rights
Your rights in more detail
These notes provide some more information in relation to
your rights to inspect, question and object to a council’s
accounts in more detail, but still in general terms. If you need
more specific detail, you should refer directly to the acts,
regulations and other documents that are mentioned in the
text or get legal advice. Please remember that you do not
have the same rights in relation to the accounts of NHS
organisations, even though the Audit Commission also
appoints their auditors.
Your legal position
Your rights are set out in sections 14, 15 and 16 of the Audit
Commission Act 1998 as amended (the ACA 1998). The
detailed regulations that set out how you can use these rights
are contained in the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2003
(the Regulations).
Your right to inspect the accounts
The ACA 1998 – section 15(1)
At each audit under this Act, other than an audit of accounts
of a health service body, any persons interested may:
(a) inspect the accounts to be audited and all books, deeds,
contracts, bills, vouchers and receipts relating to them,
and
(b) make copies of all or any part of the accounts and those
other documents.
By the end of June each year, councils finish preparing and
will approve their accounts for the financial year which ended
on 31 March of that year (see note below.) Larger councils
Note 1: Local councils’ accounts for the year ending 31 March 2006 must
be approved by 30 September 2006. For the year ending 31
March 2007, accounts must be approved by 31 August 2007 and
for the year ending 31 March 2008, by 31 July 2008. After 2008,
accounts must be approved by 30 June in each year.

Councils’ accounts | Your rights
9
must then tell the public, by advertising in at least one local
newspaper, that their accounts and the other documents
mentioned in section 15(1) of the ACA 1998 are available for
people to inspect for 20 full working days. Town councils,
parish councils, parish meetings and the Council of the Isles
of Scilly can announce this by putting up a notice in a public
place, instead of putting an advert in a newspaper.
The advert or notice must also give the dates, times and
places where the public can see and copy the documents.
Any person who is interested has the right to inspect and
copy the accounts and any ‘public interest report’ issued by
the auditor in that year, or ask for copies to be delivered to
them. Councils may make a reasonable copying charge
(please see sections 13(2) and 14(1) of the ACA 1998). It is an
offence for anyone to try to stop you from inspecting and
copying documents, although you are expected to make a
mutually convenient appointment to do so. If there is any
disagreement about what your rights are, you should contact
your council direct or go through the courts. The auditor
cannot get involved.
You cannot inspect and copy documents that contain
personal information about a member of staff (please see
section 15(3) of the ACA 1998). This means, for example, that
details of payments or other benefits that an employee
receives will be confidential. The council and an auditor
cannot give you personal information about anyone when
they answer your questions.
Questions and objections
After inspecting the accounts you may ask the auditor
questions about them or make a formal objection to them. As
the time available to you to do this is limited by law, you
should let the auditor know as soon as possible that you have
a concern about the accounts. Once the auditor has
completed the audit, you will no longer be able to ask
questions or object to the accounts for that year.

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Councils’ accounts | Your rights
Asking the auditor questions
The ACA 1998 – section 15(2)
At the request of a local government elector for any area to
which the accounts relate, the auditor shall give the elector, or
any representative of his, an opportunity to question the
auditor about the accounts.
The advert or notice that says the accounts are available for
people to inspect will also tell you how you can ask the
auditor questions and object to the accounts. Your right to
ask the auditor questions is limited. You can ask ‘what’
questions about items in the accounts but not ‘why’
questions about a council’s policies, finances or procedures
that are not about the accounts. Before you ask the auditor
any questions, you should inspect the accounts so that you
know what they contain. You may then ask the auditor to
explain certain points in the accounts before deciding
whether or not you want to ‘object’ (this right is explained
later).
If you do ask questions that are not about the accounts, the
auditor may suggest that you ask the council for the
information you want. But the auditor cannot act as a
‘postbox’ for questions to, and replies from, your council.
Your questions should be about facts, not opinions. So you
should not ask an auditor if they think something a council
has done or an item in its accounts is lawful or reasonable.
Objecting to the accounts
The ACA 1998 – section 16
(1) At each audit of accounts under this Act, other than an
audit of accounts of a health service body, a local
government elector for an area to which the accounts relate,
or any representative of his, may attend before the auditor
and (in accordance with subsection (2)) make objections –

Councils’ accounts | Your rights
11
(a) as to any matter in respect of which the auditor could take
action under section 17; or
(b) as to any other matter in respect of which the auditor
could make a report under section 8.
(2) No objection may be made under subsection (1) unless
the auditor has received written notice of the proposed
objection and of the grounds on which it is to be made.
(3) An elector sending a notice to an auditor for the purposes
of subsection (2) shall at the same time send a copy of the
notice to the body whose accounts are being audited.
You, or your representative, can object if you think that an
auditor should:
G
apply to the High Court, under section 17(1) of the ACA
1998, to confirm that an item in the accounts breaks the
law; or
G
make a report, under section 8 of the ACA 1998, on a
matter that they think the council should consider or tell
the public about (a ‘public interest report’).
Items in the accounts that break the law
An item in the accounts breaks the law if, for example, it
records spending or income that:
G
the council had no right to spend or receive;
G
was spent or received without authority;
G
was taken from, or added to, the wrong fund or account;
or
G
was spent on something that the council has power to
spend money on, but which was so unreasonably high
that it was unlawful.

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Councils’ accounts | Your rights
If an auditor considers an item to be unlawful, he or she may
apply to the High Court to confirm that an item in the
accounts is unlawful. If the court agrees, it may order that the
accounts are put right. In reaching a decision whether to
apply to the courts, the auditor will take account of a number
of factors, including the potential benefits given the costs
involved.
Report in the public interest
If you are not satisfied with a council’s decision or action but
your objection does not involve anything unlawful or a failure
to account for spending or income, the auditor could
consider issuing a report in the public interest or making a
recommendation under section 11 of the Audit Commission
Act.
Making an objection
If you want to object to a council’s accounts, you must give
formal notice of your objection, in writing, to the auditor. The
formal notice must include:
G
why you are objecting;
G
the details of any item in the accounts that you think is
unlawful; and
G
the details of any matter that you think the auditor should
make a public interest report about.
There is an on line form at www.audit-commission.gov.uk
/aboutus/contact.asp, which you can print out, fill in and
send to us at the address on the form. We will pass it onto
your council’s external auditor.
The right to object is granted specifically to local electors. So,
before accepting any objection, the auditor will want to
confirm your identity and that you are an elector of the council
in question. However, you may choose to appoint a
representative who does not have to meet this identity
requirement.

Councils’ accounts | Your rights
13
You must also send a copy of your objection to the council.
The Local Government Act 1972 explains how to serve
notices on councils. Section 231(1) of the act says that the
notice:
‘...shall be given or served by addressing it to
the local authority and leaving it at, or sending
it by post to, the principal office of the
authority or any other office of the authority
specified by them as one at which they will
accept documents of the same description as
that document.’
When you are thinking about whether to object, you must
realise that councils have the power to decide what they think
is the best way to do things. The fact that you may strongly
disagree with something the council has done, does not
mean that the action is unlawful.
An auditor and a court cannot question a council’s policy or
decisions unless these are unlawful. If you do decide to make
an objection, and if your objection contains personal or
sensitive information, you should mark it appropriately to
avoid the risk of the information being seen by an
inappropriate person. You may show this by marking the
objection and the envelope containing it, ‘Private and
confidential – for the attention of the Chief Executive (or
Clerk)’. You cannot use the objection process to make a
personal complaint or claim against a council. If you think that
your council has done something wrong, the Local
Government Ombudsman will investigate the matter. (This
does not apply to local councils.) If you think that a council
member’s behaviour has fallen below the standards that
public servants are expected to meet, the Local Government
Standards Board for England will investigate the matter. If you
think you have a claim against a council, you can get advice
from your local citizens advice bureau, local law centre or
your solicitor.

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Councils’ accounts | Your rights
Decisions about your objection
When an auditor issues their decision about an objection,
they will usually explain their reasons for the decision. If you
have made an objection that an item in the accounts is
unlawful, and the auditor has not given any reasons for his or
her decision, you have six weeks from the time you are told
what the decision is to ask the auditor for a ‘statement of
reasons’ in writing. If you are not happy about an auditor’s
decision, you have the right to appeal. You must register your
appeal in the Crown Office at the High Court within 28 days of
receiving the auditor’s reasons for their decision.
However, an auditor’s decision on objections that ask him or
her to make a ‘public interest report’ is final. The auditor will
tell you what their decision is but you cannot ask for a
statement of reasons or appeal. An auditor will usually give
you reasons for his or her decision anyway.
All public interest reports issued by auditors are published on
our website (http://www.audit commission.gov.uk/pir/).
Cost
Councils will generally meet the cost of dealing with questions
and objections. There may be circumstances in which you
may have to pay the costs yourself, for example if you appeal
to the courts against an auditor’s decision, but lose the case.

Councils’ accounts | Your rights
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Useful addresses
Audit Commission
1st Floor, Millbank Tower
Millbank
London SW1P 4QP
Phone: 020 7828 1212
E mail: auditissues@audit commission.gov.uk
Textphone: 020 7630 0421
Fax: 020 7976 6187
Website: www.audit commission.gov.uk
Local Government Ombudsman
Website: www.lgo.org.uk
Adviceline: 0845 602 1983
Local Government Standards Board for
England
The Standards Board for England
1st Floor, Cottons Centre
Cottons Lane
London SE1 2QG
Enquiries: 0845 078 8181
Fax: 020 7378 5001
Minicom: 020 7378 5199
Complaints: 0800 107 2001
E mail: [email address]
Website: www.standardsboard.co.uk

Audit Commission, 1st Floor, Millbank Tower, Millbank
London SW1P 4HQ
Phone: 020 7828 1212 Fax: 020 7976 6187
Textphone (minicom): 020 7630 0421
Website: www.audit-commission.gov.uk
E-mail: [email address]
Stock code: LCM3351