Audit committee scrutiny
About this course
Reading mid-year and outturn reports. Tracking variance. Asking productive questions without being a nuisance.
What you'll learn
- What audit committee is for
- Reading the mid-year
- Reading the outturn
- Asking productive questions
- Closing the assurance loop
Part of these pathways
Related courses
- Council money in plain English
- Treasury management for councillors
- Your responsibilities as a councillor
- Meet your council
- Reading the Metrics dashboard
- Reading the quarterly & outturn reports
Common questions
What is Audit Committee?
The council committee responsible for overseeing financial governance, internal audit, and external audit. Treasury management is one of its standing items. The audit committee's role is challenge — not management.
What is Authorised Limit?
The absolute statutory ceiling on external debt. Cannot legally be exceeded. Set as a Prudential Indicator by full Council.
What is External audit?
The independent auditor appointed to review the council's accounts and value-for-money arrangements. Treasury management is in scope.
What is Going concern?
The accounting assumption that a body will continue operating for the foreseeable future. For LAs, going concern questions arise around S114 risk and Exceptional Financial Support — both have treasury implications.
What is Internal audit?
The council's in-house assurance function. Will typically review treasury management once every 2–3 years. Reports come to audit committee.
What is Mid-year report?
Treasury management report presented around October–November covering performance for the first half of the financial year (April–September). Required by the CIPFA Treasury Management Code.