1 THE ISSUE

This report summarises and introduces the Council's Statement of Accounts for 2002/03.

2 RECOMMENDATION

The Executive is asked to endorse the Statement of Accounts for 2002/03 and to forward it to full Council for approval.

3. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

The effect of the outturn position on balances is outlined this report.

4 COUNCIL'S ACCOUNTS 2002/03

4.1 The Accounts and Audit Regulations 2003 require the Council to produce a Statement of Accounts, following the relevant accounting standards, and for these to be approved by Council within 6 months of the year end. The approval of the Accounts serves to emphasise Members' ownership of the statement, and the Accounts must be formally `signed off' by the Leader. For this Council it is considered that it is most appropriate for approval to be by the full Council and for the Accounts then to be signed by the Leader as well as the statutory financial officer.

4.2 A detailed report on last year's financial position, by Portfolio and against the approved budget is also on your agenda. There are `technical differences' between the reports and these are outlined below.

4.3 The published accounts differ from the budget management reports which are reported regularly to the Executive, as they comply with the relevant Local Authority Accounting Code of Practice (ACOP). In particular :

· Depreciation and capital charges are included in service expenditure although, since these are offset by appropriations, this has no effect on the Council's 'bottom line'. The Local Authority ACOP also requires a standard service expenditure analysis which makes comparing Councils' accounts easier. However this does not tie in with the Council's management or portfolio structure.

· The published Accounts include all spending which the Council incurs, whereas the regular reports focus on the budgeted expenditure and income of services. Hence the Accounts include, for example, Parish precepts and items approved as being `funded from balances'.

· During the year, the Council received £462,000 as its share of a disbursement from Avon County Council balances. This was automatically transferred to Council balances and reported to the Executive at its December 2002 meeting and to Council when the budget was set in February 2003.

· The Council's revenue Accounts are summarised as :

Further information can be found in the Statement of Accounts.

4.5 The Accounts will be examined in detail by our external auditors PWC, who expect to complete their audit by the end of September. Their comments will be included in their annual Management Letter, which will be reported to the Council Executive and to all Members.