Statement of Accounts

The Council's statement of accounts summarises and outlines the overall financial position of the Council for each financial year.

Notice of Delay in Commencement of the Public Inspection Period - Year Ended 31 March 2024

Under section 26 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, any persons interested have a right at the audit of the accounts each year to inspect 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.

Regulations 14 and 15 of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 (as amended) require that this right (and associated rights) are exercisable over a single period of 30 working days, commencing no later than 1st June 2024. If this deadline cannot be met, the Council is required to publish a notice of delay.

The Council has been unable to meet this requirement due to audit delays for prior year accounts which are affecting local authorities across the country. These factors are resulting in a delay in completion of the 2023-24 draft accounts, and consequently in the commencement of the public inspection period.

The unaudited 2023-24 accounts and the notice of public inspection will be published
as soon as reasonably practicable.

This notice of delayed audit is being published in accordance with the Accounts and Audit (Amended) Regulations 2021.

Statement of Accounts 2022-23

The unaudited 2022-23 annual statement of accounts can be downloaded using the link below. A couple of tables in the document are missing headers, and the order of headings skips levels. We are working on a more accessible version.

Delay in publishing audited Statement of Accounts: Year Ended 31 March 2023

The external audit of the draft Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023 has not yet been completed by our external auditors, Mazars LLP. The reasons for the delay are the need to clear audit backlog of audit work from previous years which is impacting on the timely delivery of the 2022-23.

In accordance with Regulation 10 of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015, where an audit of accounts has not been concluded by the required date (for 2022/23, the specified date is 30 September 2023), we must publish as soon as reasonably practicable a notice stating that and the reasons for this. This notification explains, as per Regulation 10, that we are not yet able to publish our audited 2022-23 Statement of Accounts in line with publication date of 30 September 2023. The Council is working closely with the external auditor to ensure the required work is completed as soon as possible. In line with the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015, Bradford Council published a draft Statement of Accounts 2022-23 subject to audit and the final audited Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023 will be published as soon as the audit is concluded, and the Independent Auditor’s Report issued.

Councils must produce an annual Statement of Accounts in accordance with legislative requirements and the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the UK. Our draft 2022-23 annual Statement of Accounts are available below for local electors to inspect.

Statement of Accounts 2021-22

The unaudited 2021-22 annual statement of accounts can be downloaded using the link below. This document is missing alternative text on a number of the figures, a couple of table are missing headers and the order of headings skips levels. We are working on an accessible version.

Delay in publishing audited Statement of Accounts: Year Ended 31 March 2022

The external audit of the draft Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 has not yet been completed by our external auditors, Mazars LLP, due to a national issue concerning the valuation of Infrastructure Assets on Local Authority balance sheets.

This situation is allowed for by Regulation 10, paragraph (2) of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/234). This notification explains, as per Regulation 10 (2) (a), that we are not yet able to publish our audited 2021-22 Statement of Accounts in line with publication date of 30 November 2022, as per Regulation 10 (1). The Council is continuing to work closely with the external auditor to ensure the required work is completed as soon as possible. In line with the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015, Bradford Council published a draft Statement of Accounts subject to audit on 31 July 2022 and the final audited Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 will be published as soon as the audit is concluded, and the Independent Auditor’s Report issued.

Councils must produce an annual Statement of Accounts in accordance with legislative requirements and the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the UK. Our draft 2021-22 annual Statement of Accounts are available below for local electors to inspect.