Public exercise of inspection and objection rights under Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014

The request was successful.

Dear Hertsmere Borough Council,

The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 provides members of the public with rights to inspect, within an annual inspection window, the council’s accounts and related documents. It also provides local electors with the right to object to an item of the accounts. Prior to the 2014 Act these same rights were enshrined in the Audit Commission Act 1998.

As a regular user of these rights, in my capacity as a local journalist, local elector, member of accountability campaigns and academic researcher I am interested in understanding the frequency and the way in which these rights are being used across the country.

The MHCLG have recently launched an independent inquiry into the quality of local authority audit (the Redmond Review). One of the questions in the recent call for views asks whether the “the inspection and objection regime allow local residents to hold their council to account in an effective manner?” whilst also acknowledging that data is not currently gathered at a national level on the citizen uses of these rights. I feel there is therefore a strong public interest in the timely disclosure of the information in this request.

Please provide the following information:

A. For all the objections you received between 2009 and 2019 (i.e. relating to financial years 2008/9 to 2018/19 inclusive) please provide the following information in an excel spreadsheet. Please use the list below as column headers and compile the data for each objection in a separate row.

1. Objection reference no.
2. Financial year the objection relates to
3. Subject/summary of the objection
4. Date objection was received
5. Did objector ask the auditor make a referral to the High Court?
6. Did objector ask the auditor to issue a Public Interest Report?
7. Was the objection accepted as valid?
8. If not, why?
9. Was a public interest report issued?
10. Was a referral made to the High Court?
11. If so, what was the High Court’s decision?
12. Were any other recommendations made or actions taken by the auditor under the powers set out in Section 24 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act?
13. Date objector was sent a final decision notice
14. How much was the council charged by the auditor to carry out work in relation to the objection?

B. For all the inspection requests you received between 2009 and 2019 (i.e. relating to financial years from 2008/9 to 2018/19 inclusive), please provide the following information in an excel spreadsheet. Please use the list below as column headers and compile the data for each inspection request in a separate row.

1. Inspection reference number
2. Financial year inspection request refers to
3. Date request for information received
4. Was the request accepted as valid?
5. If not, why?
6. Was request transferred to FOI?
7. If transferred to FOI, what was the justification for doing so?
8. Subject/summary of request as recorded
9. Which department(s) dealt with the information request?
10. Date the response and documents requested were sent to requester

Yours faithfully,

Megan I Waugh

foi, Hertsmere Borough Council

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foi, Hertsmere Borough Council

Dear Megan Waugh,

 

I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request received
25/09/2019.

 

Your request has now been considered under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act and/or Environmental Information Regulations and we are
able to respond as follows:

 

Your Request:

Dear Hertsmere Borough Council,

 

The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 provides members of the public
with rights to inspect, within an annual inspection window, the council’s
accounts and related documents. It also provides local electors with the
right to object to an item of the accounts. Prior to the 2014 Act these
same rights were enshrined in the Audit Commission Act 1998. 

 

As a regular user of these rights, in my capacity as a local journalist,
local elector, member of accountability campaigns and academic researcher
I am interested in understanding the frequency and the way in which these
rights are being used across the country.

 

The MHCLG have recently launched an independent inquiry into the quality
of local authority audit (the Redmond Review). One of the questions in the
recent call for views asks whether the “the inspection and objection
regime allow local residents to hold their council to account in an
effective manner?” whilst also acknowledging that data is not currently
gathered at a national level on the citizen uses of these rights. I feel
there is therefore a strong public interest in the timely disclosure of
the information in this request.

 

Please provide the following information:

 

A. For all the objections you received between 2009 and 2019 (i.e.
relating to financial years 2008/9 to 2018/19 inclusive) please provide
the following information in an excel spreadsheet. Please use the list
below as column headers and compile the data for each objection in a
separate row.

 

1. Objection reference no.

2. Financial year the objection relates to 3. Subject/summary of the
objection 4. Date objection was received 5. Did objector ask the auditor
make a referral to the High Court?

6. Did objector ask the auditor to issue a Public Interest Report?

7. Was the objection accepted as  valid?

8. If not, why?

9. Was a public interest report issued?

10. Was a referral made to the High Court?

11. If so, what was the High Court’s decision?

12. Were any other recommendations made or actions taken by the auditor
under the powers set out in Section 24 of the Local Audit and
Accountability Act? 

13. Date objector was sent a final decision notice 14. How much was the
council charged by the auditor to carry out work in relation to the
objection?

 

B. For all the inspection requests you received between 2009 and 2019
(i.e. relating to financial years from 2008/9 to 2018/19 inclusive),
please provide the following information in an excel spreadsheet. Please
use the list below as column headers and compile the data for each
inspection request in a separate row.

 

1. Inspection reference number

2. Financial year inspection request refers to 3. Date request for
information received 4. Was the request accepted as valid?

5. If not, why?

6. Was request transferred to FOI?

7. If transferred to FOI, what was the justification for doing so?

8. Subject/summary of request as recorded 9. Which department(s) dealt
with the information request?

10. Date the response and documents requested were sent to requester

 

Our Response:

Hertsmere Borough Council did not receive any objections or inspection
requests to the council’s annual accounts between the financial years
2008/09 to 2018/19.

 

If you have any queries about the processing of your request then please
do not hesitate to contact me.  Further information explaining the
Council's process for responding to information requests together with a
complaints/appeals procedure is available in our reception or via our
website at:

[1]https://www.hertsmere.gov.uk/Your-Counci...

 

The Information Commissioner oversees the application of the Freedom of
Information Act.  You may contact the Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioners Office

Wycliffe House, Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire    SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545700

Website:  www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

 

Please include the above reference number on all correspondence related to
this request.

 

Thank you for your request.

 

Kind regards

 

Information Services

 

 

 

 

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