CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee Paper 4 11/09/2020

Grant Thornton UK LLP 110 Queen Street Glas­gow G1 3BX

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority 14 The Square Grant­own-on-Spey Moray PH26 3HG

11 Septem­ber, 2020

Dear Sirs,

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Fin­an­cial State­ments for the year ended 31 March 2020

This rep­res­ent­a­tion let­ter is provided in con­nec­tion with the audit of the fin­an­cial state­ments of Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (the Author­ity), for the year ended 31 March 2020 for the pur­pose of express­ing an opin­ion as to wheth­er the fin­an­cial state­ments give a true and fair view in accord­ance with Inter­na­tion­al Fin­an­cial Report­ing Stand­ards, the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000, the ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ Fin­an­cial Report­ing Manu­al (the FReM) and applic­able law.

We con­firm that to the best of our know­ledge and belief hav­ing made such inquir­ies as we con­sidered neces­sary for the pur­pose of appro­pri­ately inform­ing ourselves:

Fin­an­cial Statements

i. We acknow­ledge our respons­ib­il­it­ies under the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 for pre­par­ing fin­an­cial state­ments, which give a true and fair view, and for mak­ing accur­ate rep­res­ent­a­tion to you.

ii. We have ful­filled our respons­ib­il­it­ies for the pre­par­a­tion of the fin­an­cial state­ments in accord­ance with Inter­na­tion­al Fin­an­cial Report­ing Stand­ards and the FReM which give a true and fair view in accord­ance therewith.

iii. We have com­plied with the require­ments of all stat­utory dir­ec­tions affect­ing the Author­ity and these mat­ters have been appro­pri­ately reflec­ted and dis­closed in the fin­an­cial statements.

iv. The Author­ity has com­plied with all aspects of con­trac­tu­al agree­ments that could have a mater­i­al effect on the fin­an­cial state­ments in the event of non-com­pli­ance. There has been no non-com­pli­ance with require­ments of reg­u­lat­ory author­it­ies that could have a mater­i­al effect on the fin­an­cial state­ments in the event of non-compliance.

v. We acknow­ledge our respons­ib­il­ity for the design, imple­ment­a­tion and main­ten­ance of intern­al con­trol to pre­vent and detect fraud.

vi. Sig­ni­fic­ant assump­tions used by us in mak­ing account­ing estim­ates, includ­ing those meas­ured at fair value, are reas­on­able. We are sat­is­fied that the mater­i­al judge­ments used in the pre­par­a­tion of the fin­an­cial state­ments are soundly based, in accord­ance with the FReM and adequately dis­closed in the fin­an­cial statements.

vii. We have reviewed the car­ry­ing value of prop­erty, plant and equip­ment and have noted no impair­ments bey­ond those already included in the fin­an­cial state­ments. We have no plans or inten­tions that may mater­i­ally alter the car­ry­ing value or clas­si­fic­a­tion of assets and liab­il­it­ies reflec­ted in the fin­an­cial statements.

viii. We are sat­is­fied that the mater­i­al judge­ments used in the pre­par­a­tion of fin­an­cial state­ments are soundly based, in accord­ance with the FReM and adequately dis­closed in the fin­an­cial state­ments. There are no oth­er mater­i­al judge­ments that need to be disclosed.

ix. Except as dis­closed in the fin­an­cial statements:

a. there are no unrecorded liabilities, actual or contingent
b. none of the assets of the Authority have been assigned, pledged or mortgaged
c. there are no material prior year charges or credits, nor exceptional or non-recurring items requiring separate disclosure.

x. Related party rela­tion­ships and trans­ac­tions have been appro­pri­ately accoun­ted for and dis­closed in accord­ance with the require­ments of the FReM.

xi. All events sub­sequent to the date of the fin­an­cial state­ments and for which the FReM requires adjust­ment or dis­clos­ure have been adjus­ted or disclosed.

xii. Actu­al or pos­sible lit­ig­a­tion and claims have been accoun­ted for and dis­closed in accord­ance with the require­ments of the FReM.

xiii. We have no plans or inten­tions that may mater­i­ally alter the car­ry­ing value or clas­si­fic­a­tion of assets and liab­il­it­ies reflec­ted in the fin­an­cial statements.

xiv. We believe that the fin­an­cial state­ments should be pre­pared on a going con­cern basis on the grounds that cur­rent and future sources of fund­ing or sup­port will be more than adequate for the Authority’s needs. We believe that no fur­ther dis­clos­ures relat­ing to the Authority’s abil­ity to con­tin­ue as a going con­cern need to be made in the fin­an­cial statements.

xv. We have reviewed the car­ry­ing value of prop­erty, plant and equip­ment and have noted no impair­ments bey­ond those already included in the fin­an­cial state­ments. We con­firm that we are com­fort­able with the car­ry­ing value of prop­erty, plant and equipment.

xvi. We have reviewed the account­ing for grant income, and con­firm that we are com­fort­able that all rel­ev­ant con­di­tions have been met in rela­tion to all amounts recog­nised as income in the year.

xvii. We have con­sidered the adjus­ted mis­state­ments, and mis­clas­si­fic­a­tion and dis­clos­ures changes sched­ules included in your Annu­al Audit Report. The fin­an­cial state­ments have been amended for these mis­state­ments, mis­clas­si­fic­a­tions and dis­clos­ure changes and are free of mater­i­al mis­state­ments, includ­ing omissions.

xviii. We have con­sidered the unad­jus­ted dis­clos­ure mis­state­ments sched­ule included in your Annu­al Audit Report and attached. We have not adjus­ted the fin­an­cial state­ments for these mis­state­ments brought to our atten­tion as they are imma­ter­i­al to the res­ults of the Author­ity and its fin­an­cial pos­i­tion at the year-end. The fin­an­cial state­ments are free of mater­i­al mis­state­ments, includ­ing omissions.

xix. We have reviewed the pro­vi­sions recog­nised under the LEAD­ER pro­gramme and are sat­is­fied that these are mater­i­ally correct.

xx. We have updated our going con­cern assess­ment and cash­flow fore­casts in light of the Cov­id-19 pan­dem­ic. We con­tin­ue to believe that the organisation’s fin­an­cial state­ments should be pre­pared on a going con­cern basis and have not iden­ti­fied any mater­i­al uncer­tain­ties related to going con­cern on the grounds that cur­rent and future sources of fund­ing or sup­port will be more than adequate for the organisation’s needs. We believe that no fur­ther dis­clos­ures relat­ing to the group and organisation’s abil­ity to con­tin­ue as a going con­cern need to be made in the fin­an­cial statements.

Inform­a­tion Provided

xxi. We have provided you with:

a. access to all information of which we are aware that is relevant to the preparation of the financial statements such as records, documentation and other matters;
b. additional information that you have requested from us for the purpose of your audit; and
c. unrestricted access to persons within the Authority from whom you determined it necessary to obtain audit evidence.

xxii. We have com­mu­nic­ated to you all defi­cien­cies in intern­al con­trol of which man­age­ment is aware.

xxiii. All trans­ac­tions have been recor­ded in the account­ing records and are reflec­ted in the fin­an­cial statements.

xxiv. We have dis­closed to you the res­ults of our assess­ment of the risk that the fin­an­cial state­ments may be mater­i­ally mis­stated as a res­ult of fraud.

xxv. We have dis­closed to you all our know­ledge of fraud or sus­pec­ted fraud affect­ing the Author­ity involving:

d. management;
e. employees who have significant roles in internal control; or
f. others where the fraud could have a material effect on the financial statements.

xxvi. We have dis­closed to you all our know­ledge of any alleg­a­tions of fraud, or sus­pec­ted fraud, affect­ing the fin­an­cial state­ments com­mu­nic­ated by employ­ees, former employ­ees, reg­u­lat­ors or others.

xxvii. We have dis­closed to you all known instances of non-com­pli­ance or sus­pec­ted non-com­pli­ance with laws and reg­u­la­tions whose effects should be con­sidered when pre­par­ing the fin­an­cial statements.

xxviii. Related party rela­tion­ships and trans­ac­tions have been appro­pri­ately accoun­ted for and dis­closed in accord­ance with the require­ments of Inter­na­tion­al Fin­an­cial Report­ing Stand­ards and Com­pan­ies legislation.

xxix. We have dis­closed to you all known actu­al or pos­sible lit­ig­a­tion and claims whose effects should be con­sidered when pre­par­ing the fin­an­cial statements.

Gov­ernance Statement

xxx. We are sat­is­fied that the Gov­ernance State­ment (GS) fairly reflects the Authority’s risk assur­ance and gov­ernance frame­work and we con­firm that we are not aware of any sig­ni­fic­ant risks that are not dis­closed with­in the GS.

Account­able Officer

xxxi. I acknow­ledge as Account­able Officer my respons­ib­il­ity for the cor­por­ate gov­ernance arrange­ments. I con­firm that I have dis­closed to the aud­it­or all defi­cien­cies in intern­al con­trol of which I am aware.

Nar­rat­ive Report

xxxii. The dis­clos­ures with­in the Per­form­ance Report fairly reflect our under­stand­ing of the fin­an­cial and oper­at­ing per­form­ance over the peri­od covered by the fin­an­cial statements.

Approv­al

The approv­al of this let­ter of rep­res­ent­a­tion was minuted by the Authority’s Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee at its meet­ing on 11 Septem­ber 2020.

Yours faith­fully,

Grant Moir Chief Exec­ut­ive and Account­able Officer 11 Septem­ber 2020

Uncor­rec­ted misstatements

Item	Dr (£’000)	(Cr) (£’000)	Descrip­tion
Cred­it­ors	91		Being bal­ance of pro­vi­sions incor­rectly clas­si­fied with­in creditors.
Pro­vi­sions		(91)	Not adjus­ted as imma­ter­i­al to the fin­an­cial state­ments. (Note pri­or year impact immaterial).