Public exercise of inspection and objection rights under Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014
Dear Harlow District 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
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Harlow Council, Civic Centre, The Water Gardens, Harlow, Essex, CM20 1WG
Contact Harlow - 01279 446655
Visit our website www.harlow.gov.uk<http://www.harlow.gov.uk/>
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Dear Megan,
Your Freedom of Information request has been logged under reference RFI146156025.
Please quote the above reference number should you require any further information.
Privacy Notice
Harlow Council will process your personal information in order to comply with its legal obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Your request for information will also be used to compile anonymous statistics for use by Harlow Council - this does not include your personal information and so you cannot be identified as an individual.
Although it is not our intention to collect any other personal information and/or sensitive personal information, you may provide information of this type inadvertently when making your request. Any sensitive personal information collected will be kept confidential and secure and will not be shared with any third parties.
Your request for information and personal information will be directed to the relevant departments of Harlow Council in order to provide the information you have requested. Your information will also be shared where the Council is under a legal obligation to do so.
Records relating to this request for information will be retained for three years from the date of the last action.
For more information on how we collect, use and protect personal information generally, as well as your rights as a data subject please view our main privacy notice on our website by visiting http://www.harlow.gov.uk/privacy-notice
If you do not have online access a paper copy of our main privacy notice can be provided by contacting us on the details provided below.
Best wishes,
Contact Harlow
Harlow Council, Civic Centre, The Water Gardens, Harlow, Essex, CM20 1WG
Contact Harlow - 01279 446655
Visit our website www.harlow.gov.uk
Follow us on twitter @HarlowCouncil
Good afternoon
FOI ref FRI146156025
I can confirm that Harlow Council has not had any requests to inspect nor
any objections during the period 2009 to 2019.
Should you require any further information please contact me again.
Thank you
Colin Ward
Systems Team, Leader
Finance
Tel 01279 446299
Alternative Contacts;
Joanne Curran – Senior Systems Support Officer Tel. 01279 446220
Email: [email address]
Silvia Fell – Interim System Support Officer Tel. 01279 446226
Email: [email address]
Finance general Email: [email address]
Visit our website www.harlow.gov.uk
Follow us on twitter @HarlowCouncil
Harlow Council, Civic Centre, The Water Gardens, Harlow, Essex, CM20 1WG
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