CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee Paper 3 10/09/2021

Grant Thornton UK LLP Level 8 110 Queen Street Glas­gow G1 3BX

Dear Sirs

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority Fin­an­cial State­ments for the year ended 31 March 2021

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 2021 for the pur­pose of express­ing an opin­ion as to wheth­er the fin­an­cial state­ments are presen­ted fairly, in all mater­i­al respects in accord­ance with Inter­na­tion­al Fin­an­cial Report­ing Stand­ards and the HM Treas­ury Fin­an­cial Report­ing Manu­al (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 have ful­filled our respons­ib­il­it­ies for the pre­par­a­tion of the fin­an­cial state­ments in accord­ance with Inter­na­tion­al Fin­an­cial Report­ing Stand­ards and the FReM in par­tic­u­lar the fin­an­cial state­ments are fairly presen­ted in accord­ance therewith.

ii. We have ful­filled our respons­ib­il­it­ies in pre­par­ing fin­an­cial state­ments in accord­ance with the FReM and dir­ec­tion giv­en by Scot­tish Min­is­ters with­in The Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000.

iii. We have ful­filled our respons­ib­il­it­ies for ensur­ing that expendit­ure and income are applied for the pur­poses inten­ded and that the fin­an­cial trans­ac­tions in the fin­an­cial state­ments con­form to the author­it­ies which gov­ern them.

iv. 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.

v. 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 any reg­u­lat­ory author­it­ies that could have a mater­i­al effect on the fin­an­cial state­ments in the event of non-compliance.

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

vii. Sig­ni­fic­ant assump­tions used by us in mak­ing account­ing estim­ates, includ­ing those meas­ured at fair value, are reas­on­able. Such account­ing estim­ates include: pro­vi­sions, depre­ci­ation of prop­erty, plant and equip­ment and accru­als. 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. We under­stand our respons­ib­il­it­ies includes identi­fy­ing and con­sid­er­ing altern­at­ive, meth­ods, assump­tions, or source data that would be equally val­id under the fin­an­cial report­ing frame­work, and why these altern­at­ives were rejec­ted in favour of the estim­ate used.

viii. 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.

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

x. All events sub­sequent to the date of the fin­an­cial state­ments and for which Inter­na­tion­al Fin­an­cial Report­ing Stand­ards and the FReM require adjust­ment or dis­clos­ure have been adjus­ted or disclosed.

xi. We have only accrued for items received before the year-end.

xii. We have con­sidered the unad­jus­ted mis­state­ments sched­ule included in your Audit Find­ings 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.

xiii. The fin­an­cial state­ments are free of mater­i­al mis­state­ments, includ­ing omissions.

xiv. Actu­al or pos­sible lit­ig­a­tion and claims have been accoun­ted for and dis­closed in accord­ance with the require­ments of Inter­na­tion­al Fin­an­cial Report­ing Standards.

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

xvi. We have updated our going con­cern assess­ment and cash­flow fore­casts in light of the Cov­id-19 pan­dem­ic. We con­tin­ue to believe that the Authority’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:

a. the nature of the Authority means that, notwithstanding any intention to liquidate the Authority or cease its operations in their current form, it will continue to be appropriate to adopt the going concern basis of accounting because, in such an event, services it performs can be expected to continue to be delivered by related public authorities and preparing the financial statements on a going concern basis will still provide a faithful representation of the items in the financial statements
b. the financial reporting framework permits the entry to prepare its financial statements on the basis of the presumption set out under a) above; and
c. The Authority’s system of internal control has not identified any events or conditions relevant to going concern.

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.

Inform­a­tion Provided

xvii. We have provided you with:

a. access to all information of which we are aware that is relevant to the preparation of the Authority’s 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. access to persons within the Authority via remote arrangements, in compliance with the nationally specified social distancing requirements established by the government in response to the Covid-19 pandemic from whom you determined it necessary to obtain audit evidence.

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

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

xx. 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.

xxi. We have dis­closed to you all inform­a­tion in rela­tion to fraud or sus­pec­ted fraud that we are aware of and that affects the Author­ity and involves:

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

xxii. We have dis­closed to you all inform­a­tion in rela­tion to alleg­a­tions of fraud, or sus­pec­ted fraud, affect­ing the fin­an­cial state­ments com­mu­nic­ated by employ­ees, former employ­ees, ana­lysts, reg­u­lat­ors or others.

xxiii. 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 fin­an­cial statements.

xxiv. We have dis­closed to you the iden­tity of the Authority’s related parties and all the related party rela­tion­ships and trans­ac­tions of which we are aware.

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

Annu­al Gov­ernance Statement

xxvi. We are sat­is­fied that the Annu­al Gov­ernance State­ment (AGS) 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 AGS.

Annu­al Report

xxvii. The dis­clos­ures with­in the Annu­al Report fairly reflect our under­stand­ing of the Authority’s fin­an­cial and oper­at­ing per­form­ance over the peri­od covered by the Authority’s fin­an­cial statements.

Approv­al

The approv­al of this let­ter of rep­res­ent­a­tion was minuted by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee meet­ing at its meet­ing on 10 Septem­ber 2021.

Yours faith­fully

Grant Moir Chief Exec­ut­ive and Account­able Officer Date: Signed on behalf of Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Appendix 1: Unad­jus­ted misstatements

Detail	Net Expendit­ure (£’000)	State­ment of Fin­an­cial Pos­i­tion (£’000)
Being adjust­ment to sep­ar­ately recog­nise pro­vi­sions from trade and oth­er pay­ables and oth­er cur­rent liab­il­it­ies (Note required dis­clos­ures around pro­vi­sions also required)
Over­all impact

The adjust­ment above is not con­sidered mater­i­al to the fin­an­cial statements.