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Sandgate Parish Council is defined as a “smaller authority” for the purposes of publication of its annual accounts and statements.

The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 and the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 require that:

1. The accounting records for the financial year to which the audit relates and all books, deeds, contracts, bills, vouchers, receipts and other documents relating to those records must be made available for inspection by any person interested, during a period of 30 working days set by the smaller authority and including the first 10 working days of July.

2. The period referred to in paragraph (1) starts with the day on which the period for the exercise of public rights is treated as having been commenced i.e. the day following the day on which all of the obligations in paragraph (3) below have been fulfilled.

3. The responsible financial officer for a relevant authority must, on behalf of that authority, publish (which must include publication on the authority’s website):

(a) the Accounting Statements (i.e. Section 2 of the Annual Return), accompanied by:

(i) a declaration, signed by that officer to the effect that the status of the Accounting Statements are unaudited and that the Accounting Statements as published may be subject to change;

(ii) the Annual Governance Statement (i.e. Section 1 of the Annual Return); and

(b) a statement that sets out—

(i) the period for the exercise of public rights;

(ii) details of the manner in which notice should be given of an intention to inspect the accounting records and other documents;

(iii) the name and address of the local auditor;

(iv) the provisions contained in section 26 (inspection of documents etc.) and section 27 (right to make objections at audit) of the Act, as they have effect in relation to the authority in question.

All the required accounting statements, declarations, annual governance statement and additional statements are available in this 2020 Full Annual Return of Sandgate Parish Council. The declared period for the exercise of Public Rights is 1 September – 12 October 2020, but in practice it was published on the Sandgate Parish Council website on 30 July 2020.

Scanned pdf documents do not comply with the Accessibility Regulations but the above documents can be provided in an alternative format or on alternative media, on request.

There is a National Audit Office guide Local Authority Accounts: A guide to your rights.