Councillors and committees

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Virtual Informal Meeting Via Teams

Contact: Angela Guest  Email: angela.guest@surreycc.gov.uk

Note: Please note that this meeting has been changed to an Informal meeting and will NOT be held in public. 

Items
No. Item

40/22

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

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    Minutes:

    Apologies were received from Richard Tear and Stephen Cooksey.

41/22

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING [13 JUNE 2022] pdf icon PDF 254 KB

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    To agree the minutes as a true record of the meeting.

    Minutes:

    The Minutes of the previous meeting were noted but would need formal approval at the next formal meeting.

42/22

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

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    All Members present are required to declare, at this point in the meeting or as soon as possible thereafter

    (i)            Any disclosable pecuniary interests and / or

    (ii)           Other interests arising under the Code of Conduct in respect of any item(s) of business being considered at this meeting

    NOTES:

    ·         Members are reminded that they must not participate in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest

    ·         As well as an interest of the Member, this includes any interest, of which the Member is aware, that relates to the Member’s spouse or civil partner (or any person with whom the Member is living as a spouse or civil partner)

    ·         Members with a significant personal interest may participate in the discussion and vote on that matter unless that interest could be reasonably regarded as prejudicial.

    Minutes:

    There were none.

43/22

DRAFT STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 157 KB

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    This report summarises the key aspects of the 2021/22 statement of accounts.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Speakers:

    Barry Stratfull, Chief Accountant

    Nikki O’Connor, Strategic Finance Business Partner

     

    Key points raised:

    1.    The Chief Accountant Introduced the report which summarised key aspects of the Draft Statement of Accounts (SoA) and outlined its purpose.

    2.    In summary the Chief Accountant reported that:

    • The total value of the net liabilities on the balance sheet was £198m which was an improvement of £567m in comparison to last year.
    • This was primarily due to capital expenditure incurred in the year and asset valuation increase, resulting in an increase in the Property Plant & Equipment balance and a significant improvement of £311m in the Council’s pension liability – due to the asset and liability of actuarial assessment improved in the year compared to last year (which included Covid related impacts).
    • The Fund does operate multiple investment strategies, the value of asset return was £180m which was an increase compared to last year a gain of 7% on the assets and demographic assumptions improved as used more up to date longevity assumptions and reduction in obligations by half a percent.
    • However, the pensions liabilities still has a significant impact on the balance sheet and the net worth of the Council.  It is important to note that pension benefits are not payable until employees retire however for accounting purposes accrued future obligations must be accounted for. The pensions liability is calculated by Hymans Robertson – £1.86bn (was at £2.171bn).
    • There are two separate pension funds included in the Statement of Accounts: The Local Government Pension Fund and a separate firefighters pension fund.  The firefighters pension fund was £660m at the 31 March 2022, a decrease of £36 million liability on the previous year.
    • At the time of writing the auditors had not received any objections to the Statement of Accounts.

    3.    In response to a Member query regarding making reference to the recent pay award in the narrative report the Strategic Finance Business Partner reports that the narrative report was focused on activity of 2021/22, so not necessary or appropriate to mention the recently agreed award but last year’s pay award could be referenced.

    4.    The Strategic Finance Business Partner agreed to:

    • redraft page 21, financial performance revenue and gross expenditure and income, the final sentence: small surplus of £1m and page 31 on income expenditure accounts that talks of £26m be redrafted to avoid confusion.
    • Summarise on page 32, what the 22% efficiencies are that were not delivered, although noted that more detail on these are contained in the outturn report to Cabinet.

    5.    There was much discussion about information relating to the number of employees, salary levels and other related figures and how these were reported or not reported.  Members were concerned that the transparency on what the council was trying to achieve was being provided to residents.  Further narrative would be provided in the final version of the accounts and figures would be confirmed.

    6.    There was some discussion about the main pensions fund being funded and the fire pension fund not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43/22

44/22

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

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    The next meeting of Audit & Governance Committee will be on 12 September 2022.

    Minutes:

    It was noted that the next meeting of Audit & Governance Committee will be on 12 September 2022.