2022/23 Annual Outturn
North Lanarkshire Council · 13 September 2023
Back to Finance and Resources Committee — 13 September 2023 and its agenda
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Finance and Resources Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☐ Yes ☒ No Ref EK/KS Date 13/09/23 2022/23 Annual Outturn From Elaine Kemp, Chief Officer (Finance) E-mail kempe@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 01698 302408 Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to inform Committee that the annual statutory accounts of the Council for the year ended 31 March 2023 were reported to the Audit and Scrutiny Panel at its meeting of 29 June and subsequently submitted to the Council’s External Auditors, Audit Scotland, by the statutory date of 30 June before being published on the Council’s website. This report also updates Committee on the overall position for the General Fund Account and explains any major variations against the Council’s annual budget for the year 2022/23. An overall summary on the Housing Revenue Account is also provided. Recommendations It is recommended that the Finance and Resources Committee: (1) Acknowledge the contents of the report. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority All priorities Ambition statement (25) Ensure intelligent use of data and information to support fully evidence based decision making and future planning
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1. Background 1.1. The Annual Accounts demonstrate the Council’s stewardship of the public funds with which it is entrusted. The Annual Accounts are prepared in accordance with the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom. The Local Authority Accounts (Scotland) Regulations, require the Council to submit a set of unaudited accounts to its external auditors, Audit Scotland, by 30 June following the end of the financial year. 1.2. In addition, the Council’s approved Financial Regulations require Council Services to remain within the approved budgetary provision, and to report all significant deviations within their budget monitoring reports. 2. Report 2.1 The 2022/23 Unaudited Accounts were presented to Audit and Scrutiny Panel on 29 June 2023. Following the meeting the accounts were submitted formally to Audit Scotland and subsequently published on the Council’s website for public inspection. 2.2 The General Fund outturned with a surplus of £13.608m which has been added to the surplus of £236.264m brought forward from 2021/22, resulting in an overall surplus to be carried forward into 2023/24 of £249.872m. 2.3 The carried forward General Fund Surplus is represented by £28.115m held in the Change Management Fund in order to provide for the anticipated one-off costs of approved savings, £174.730m of earmarked funds held for specific future service commitments and a balance of £8.000m maintained as the approved contingency fund. This leaves an unallocated balance of £39.027m. 2022/23 Earmarked Funds £m £m Change Management Fund 28.115 Schools Future Contractual Obligations 56.683 2023/24 Budget One-off Use of Balances 21.075 Strategic Workforce Planning 13.000 Temporary Teachers 10.928 Temporary Accommodation 9.288 Early Years & Childcare Expansion 7.312 Refugee Resettlement Programmes 5.699 Loans Charges – One-off Mitigation 5.000 Non-Pay Inflation Mitigation 4.902 Unmanaged burdens within Education, Children & Families 4.755 Other E&C Service Developments 4.185 Pupil Equity Fund 3.851 Balances held by Schools under Devolved School Management 3.724 Economic Recovery 3.554 Whole Family Wellbeing 2.584 Winter Reserve 1.500 Business Gateway and Business Recovery 1.379 Rapid Rehousing 1.081 Other Earmarked Funds 14.230 174.730 Contingency Fund 8.000 Unallocated Balance 39.027 General Fund Surplus as at 31 March 2023 249.872
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2.4 The provisional outturn report indicated a General Fund surplus of £22.228m. When compared with a final outturn surplus of £13.608m there has been a movement of £8.620m. This is largely represented by the use of 2022/23 earmarked reserves of £48.834m which includes the £6.000m use of balances approved as part of the 2022/23 budget setting process. This is offset by approved earmarked reserves for use in future years of £33.519m. Further to this, the movement includes an increased surplus is relation to Loan Debt Holiday impact of £8.727m. This leaves a further movement from the provisional outturn position of £2.032m which relates to a number of smaller movements across all services. 2.5 In addition, the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) reported a £2.067m surplus position at provisional outturn. This position differs from the final outturn of £6.822m surplus which recognises the use of earmarked reserves in year of £5.037m and the impact of the Loan Debt Holiday of £9.792m. The in year surplus has increased the balance brought forward resulting in a cumulative surplus of £26.318m. Of this surplus, £11.304m has already been approved for specific purposes including £4.385m for Council Ambition; £2.500m for the HRA capital energy efficiency programme; and £1.470m set aside for an approved contingency fund. This leaves an unallocated balance of £15.014m. 3. Measures of success 3.1 The Council continues to operate within approved budgeted resources. 4. Supporting documentation 4.1 No appendices Elaine Kemp Chief Officer (Finance)
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5. Impacts 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality- and-fairer-scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts been discussed and agreed with Finance? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts been discussed and agreed with People Resources? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact?
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Where the impact identifies a requirement for significant technology change, has an assessment been carried out (or is scheduled to be carried out) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? 5.10 Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the report require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e. does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in-Service or ex- Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services. 5.11 Children’s rights and wellbeing impact Does the report contain any information regarding any council activity, service delivery, policy, or plan that has an impact on children and young people up to the age of 18, or on a specific group of these? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact and the provision that has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the relevant Articles from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). If Yes, has a Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment (CRWIA) been carried out? Yes ☐ No ☐