CIPFA LASAAC issues an exceptional consultation on time limited changes to the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting
12 Feb, 2022
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and the Local Authority (Scotland) Accounts Advisory Committee (LASAAC) have issued an exceptional consultation on time limited changes to the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom ("the Code") to help alleviate delays to the publication of audited financial statements.
Ninety-one per-cent of local bodies in England missed the statutory deadline of 30 September 2021 for the publication of their audited 2020/21 accounts, meaning that only 9% of audited accounts were published by the deadline. This trend continued after the 30 September deadline where only 40% had been published by December 2021. In order to try to alleviate this issue, CIPFA LASAAC considered a number of options and focus on two of these in the consultation. The options considered in the consultation are:
- Pausing the requirements for professional valuation of operational property, plant and equipment assets in the 2021/22 Code and (at least) the 2022/23 Code, with the possibility of mitigating the effect of this through the application of centrally determined indices.
- Deferring the implementation of IFRS 16 Leases for a further year and reversing the planned changes to the 2022/23 code to implement that standard.
If the proposals being consulted on were endorsed, one of the options would be effective for 2021/22 and so come into force shortly before 31 March 2022. The remaining option relates to the 2022/23 Code.
Comments are requested by 23:00 on 3 March 2022.
Click for (all links to the CIPFA website):
- Public Release
- Invitation to comment (ITC)
- Annex One: the exposure draft which presents the changes
- Annex Two: information on the options considered by CIPFA/LASAAC
