Public exercise of inspection and objection rights under Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014
Dear High Peak 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
Your reference number is HPFOI2019/20-0541
Thank you for your information request. This is an automated response and
acknowledgement. If you have submitted a request under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA) or the Environmental Information Regulations
2004 (EIR), your request will be considered and you will receive our
response within the statutory timescale of 20 working days (working days
being Monday to Friday, excluding Bank Holidays).
If you need to contact the Council, in the meantime, our contact details
are given below.
Thank you.
Jenny Atherton
Freedom of Information Officer
High Peak Borough Council
Tel: 0345 129 7777
Dear Madam
Thank you for your request for information which was received by the
Council on 25 September 2019.
I am advised that the Council’s response to your information request
regarding the above is as follows.
Please see the information requested on the attached spreadsheet.
Under the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015, you are
free to use any of the information that you have been provided with by the
Council in response to this request. The information may be re-used
subject to the terms of the [1]Open Government Licence.
If you are dissatisfied with the response given to your request, you are
entitled to request an internal review. Please
contact [2][email address], within 2 months of receiving the Council’s
response, if you require an internal review of your case.
If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of the internal review, you
have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:
FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
[3]www.ico.org.uk
For information purposes only, the cost to the Council to respond to this
request is £50.00.
Yours faithfully
Jenny Atherton
Freedom of Information Officer
High Peak Borough Council
Tel: 0345 129 7777
References
Visible links
1. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.ico.org.uk/
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