Issue - meetings

The Charter Trustees are advised that all smaller authorities, those with an income/expenditure under £6.5 million, require an external auditor to be appointed to undertake a ‘limited assurance review’ at the conclusion of the financial year and in case an objection is received from a local elector. Smaller authorities mainly comprise of Town and Parish Councils although Charter Trustees are also included within the definition of a smaller authority.

The Smaller Authorities’ Audit Appointments (SAAA) was formally appointed in January 2016 by the Minister for Local Government as “a person specified to appoint local auditors”.  It is proposed that the Charter Trustees use this central procurement and appointment regime.  If newly created authorities opted out of this regime they would be required to procure and appoint their own external auditors.

We received statutory correspondence on 21st November 2019 providing details of the formation of SAAA and specification by MHCLG, the procurement of auditors and the central appointments regime for smaller authorities (with an option for the authority to opt-out, procure and appoint its own external auditor).

All Charter Trustees were forwarded the email correspondence for comment and no objections were raised.

We thus received confirmation by email a formal ‘notification of auditor appointment’ letter setting out our inclusion in the central appointments regime on 18^th December 2019. The fee will likely be £200 based on indicated expenditures.

RESOLVED that the Charter Trustees for Taunton approved the appointment of external auditors PKF Littlejohn made under the central appointments regime The Smaller Authorities’ Audit Appointments (SAAA).