Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee Paper 5

21 June 2023

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For Decision

Title: Extern­al Audit Strategy Memorandum

Pre­pared by: Paper: Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy Chief Executive

Annex: Tom Reid, Maz­ars LLP

Pur­pose

This paper sum­mar­ises our con­clu­sions and key find­ings from the extern­al audit work under­taken at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity dur­ing the year ended 31 March 2023.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to:

a) Agree the final extern­al audit plan for the extern­al audit of the ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ annu­al report and accounts; b) Agree the fee for the audit as set out in Sec­tion Six of the Annex to this paper;

Exec­ut­ive Summary

1. The plan for the audit of the ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ fin­an­cial state­ments and annu­al report has been agreed between the extern­al audit man­ager and seni­or officers. The plan is presen­ted in full at the Annex to this paper. The pur­pose of the doc­u­ment included in the Annex is to sum­mar­ise our audit approach, high­light sig­ni­fic­ant audit risks and sup­port con­sid­er­a­tion of any areas of key judge­ments in the accounts which will be sub­ject to audit.

2. The fee for the audit is set out in Sec­tion Six of the Annex to this paper. As back­ground con­text to the increase in audit fee as com­pared to the pri­or year, Audit Scot­land informed all pub­lic bod­ies of a gen­er­al increase in the fee rates for the new round of audit appoint­ments and this fee is there­fore in line with the expec­ted increase in rates across the sector.

3. The audit plan is presen­ted to the Com­mit­tee for con­sid­er­a­tion and approv­al, in line with the timetable for the audit pro­cess set out on Sec­tion 5 of the plan.

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Dav­id Cameron