The Government wishes to hand more power to the public by providing them with tools to be able to hold those Parish Councils to account, who have a turn over not exceeding £25,000 per financial year. (Turnover has been defined as the gross income and gross expenditure per year). In return the Government has removed the relevant Parish Councils from the routine external audit regime. Instead these Councils will be subject to the new transparency requirements of the new Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities. However, due to an oversight regarding the length of the contracts of the appointed External Auditor firms, relevant Parish Councils will still also be subject to the External Audit Regime until 2017. This means that these Councils will have to comply with the new Transparency Code and continue to be subject to annual External Audit, until 2017. The new Code will require that relevant Parish Councils to make available by publishing, information regarding their accounts and governance by July 1st 2015. After which the relevant information must be published in accordance with the Code. This is not less than once a year by the 1st July. The Government will then appoint an External Auditor/s to the relevant Councils, in order to comply with the public’s right to call in the Councils accounts. The Councils will also be required to display the annual notice inviting the public to inspect the accounts.
