We acknowledge the receipt of your email.

If you have made a request for information, it will normally be dealt
with in the period stipulated by either the Freedom of Information Act
2000 or the Data Protection Act 2018.

Other requests or queries will be dealt with as quickly as possible.

Thank you.

Information Governance Officer

Dear Ms Waugh,

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request No. 3186.

The response to your request is set out below and in the attached
document.

A) Thanet District Council was not responsible for the collection of the
information you have asked for in the first part of your request. Any
questions and/or objections were submitted by local electors directly to
the Auditors, Grant Thornton.

Attached is the advertisement that was published along with the accounts
for the 2018 / 19 financial year. This sets out how local electors could
contact the auditors to raise questions.

B) There is no requirement on the part of the Council to hold a formal log
of inspections. Therefore, although we may have a record of some of the
information we have sent electronically over the years, we would not be
able to confirm related details and timings as requested.

If you are unhappy with the way your enquiry has been dealt with, you may
ask for an internal review by submitting a request within one month of the
date of this response. Further information on the internal review process
is can be found here:
[1]https://www.thanet.gov.uk/your-services/...

Your request should be addressed to the Information Governance Manager,
Thanet District Council, PO Box 9, Cecil Street, Margate, CT9 1XZ or by
emailing [2][email address].   

If you are still dissatisfied after an internal review, you may appeal to
the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow SK9
5AF.

Yours sincerely,

Information Governance Officer

Thanet District Council

Margate

CT9 1XZ

01843 577247

---------------------------

Originating request

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

References

Visible links
1. https://www.thanet.gov.uk/your-services/...
2. mailto:[email address]