Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee Paper 3 02 Octo­ber 2026 Page 1 of 7

For dis­cus­sion

Title: ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ Draft Accounts Pre­pared by: Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Operations Kath­er­ine August, Fin­an­cial Accountant

Pur­pose

To present the draft Annu­al Report and Accounts for ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to: a) Review and con­sider the annu­al report and accounts pri­or to com­ple­tion of the audit. b) Approve the final report and accounts pri­or to their being signed by the Chief Exec­ut­ive and sub­mit­ted to Audit Scot­land for final certification.

Stra­tegic context

1. The Audit & Risk Committee’s role and respons­ib­il­it­ies as regards the pro­cess of pre­par­ing the annu­al report and accounts are set out in the Scot­tish Pub­lic Fin­ance Manu­al. The Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee is put in place to provide assur­ance on risk man­age­ment, gov­ernance and intern­al con­trol and to act as a source of inde­pend­ent advice on these mat­ters to the Account­able Officer and Board. The Committee’s role as regards the accounts is to sup­port the Account­able Officer with regard to their per­son­al respons­ib­il­it­ies for issues of risk, con­trol and gov­ernance through a pro­cess of con­struct­ive challenge.
2. The Com­mit­tee has pre­vi­ously con­sidered its exer­cise of this role for the ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ fin­an­cial year in con­sid­er­a­tion and approv­al of the Gov­ernance State­ment now included in the accounts document.
3. Maz­ars, the Authority’s extern­al aud­it­ors, are cur­rently com­plet­ing their audit work, and con­sequently, have not yet provided their audit opinion.

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Review of the annu­al report and accounts

1. The annu­al report is pre­pared in three sec­tions: a) The Per­form­ance Report which provides inform­a­tion on the struc­ture of the Park Author­ity, its stra­tegic aims, the key risks faced, and its per­form­ance over the year. b) The Account­ab­il­ity Report, set­ting out mat­ters of gov­ernance and provid­ing inform­a­tion on remu­ner­a­tion and staff­ing; the final report will also include the audit opin­ion. c) The fin­an­cial statements.
2. The Per­form­ance Report includes a wealth of inform­a­tion on the Park Author­ity. In par­tic­u­lar, the Per­form­ance Ana­lys­is (page 14) provides inform­a­tion on the per­form­ance of the organ­isa­tion over the year, our aims and pri­or­it­ies, our achieve­ments and fin­an­cial res­ults. This report was developed from con­tri­bu­tions made by col­leagues from across the organ­isa­tion and provides a sum­mary of the high­lights for the year.
3. The Account­ab­il­ity Report includes the Gov­ernance State­ment approved by the Com­mit­tee at its meet­ing in June. The Remu­ner­a­tion Report sets out inform­a­tion on staff­ing and remu­ner­a­tion, includ­ing the Authority’s approach to equal­ity, diversity and inclu­sion (EDI), mat­ters around health and safety and staff con­sulta­tion, and fair pay dis­clos­ures. Board mem­bers’ fees and expenses are shown with­in pro­scribed mon­et­ary ranges, as is the remu­ner­a­tion of the Exec­ut­ive Team.
4. Dis­clos­ure of Exec­ut­ive pay includes an assess­ment of the value of pen­sion bene­fits for each of the dir­ect­ors, which is provided by Civil Ser­vice Pen­sions. A dis­crep­ancy has been iden­ti­fied between the annu­al reports received from Civil Ser­vice Pen­sions for ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ and the val­ues shown on the ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ reports for the ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ year (com­par­at­ive figures).
5. We have reques­ted cla­ri­fic­a­tion from Civil Ser­vice Pen­sions and await their response. The fig­ures shown as com­par­at­ives in the Remu­ner­a­tion Report for ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ are those dis­closed in the audited accounts for ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅.

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The Fin­an­cial Statements

1. The Fin­an­cial State­ments com­mence on page 92 with The State­ment of Com­pre­hens­ive Net Expendit­ure, which describes the Park Authority’s per­form­ance for the year. The Authority’s fin­an­cial pos­i­tion on 31 March 2026 is described in the State­ment of Fin­an­cial Pos­i­tion (page 93). Cash move­ments dur­ing the year are reflec­ted in the State­ment of Cash Flows (page 94). The Author­ity applied funds provided through grant-in-aid to the pur­poses inten­ded and to meet the aims of the oper­a­tion­al plan and the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. Pro­ject fund­ing was sim­il­arly dis­posed in accord­ance with the plans approved by funders.

State­ment of Com­pre­hens­ive Net Expendit­ure (SoCNE)

1. Over­all, fund­ing through grant-in-aid (includ­ing fund­ing for peat­land res­tor­a­tion and nature res­tor­a­tion) was over £3 mil­lion high­er than in the pre­vi­ous year. In addi­tion to an increase in core resource and cap­it­al alloc­a­tions, the Park Author­ity received a sig­ni­fic­ant award from the Nature Res­tor­a­tion Fund (£1.195 mil­lion), and an increased alloc­a­tion of from Peat­land Action, which sup­por­ted the deliv­ery of an addi­tion­al £1.2 mil­lion of restoration.
2. Net expendit­ure of £15.138 mil­lion was fun­ded by the alloc­a­tion of grant-in-aid of £15.219 million.

£ mil­lion
Total net expenditure	15,138
Grant-in-aid for the year (cash)	15,219
Sur­plus	0.081
Trans­fer to Tax­pay­ers’ Equity	(0.081)
	-

1. The State­ment of Changes in Tax­pay­ers’ Equity (page 95) shows this trans­fer: the bal­ance at 31 March 2026 of £1.237 mil­lion, is made up of the bal­ance brought for­ward from the pre­vi­ous year £1.156 mil­lion and the net sur­plus of £0.081 million.
2. Note 7 (page 107) shows the main run­ning costs incurred com­pared to those recor­ded in the pri­or year. The most sig­ni­fic­ant change is the increase of £225,000 in the cost of Inform­a­tion Tech­no­logy resources. This increase relates to con­nec­tions charges to the upgraded Scot­tish Wide Area Net­work (SWAN2)

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togeth­er with the cost of improved soft­ware: the new fin­ance sys­tem and the upgrade to the plan­ning sys­tem. Both new sys­tems are cloud-based applic­a­tions, pur­chased as ​‘Soft­ware as a Service’.

State­ment of Fin­an­cial Per­form­ance (SoFP)

1. The SoFP shows an increase in both cur­rent assets and cur­rent liab­il­it­ies. These changes largely bal­ance out and res­ult from increased activ­ity on the Cairngorms 2030 programme.
2. Trade and oth­er receiv­ables: A claim was made for the final quarter of ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆, for which remit­tance was received early in ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇. Con­sequently, the amount claimed was included as a debt­or in SoFP to 31 March 2026.
3. Cash and cash equi­val­ents: Bal­ances have increased as a res­ult of the Park Authority’s fund­ing agree­ment with the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (NLHF) whereby the Author­ity includes in its claims to NLHF, expendit­ure incurred by part­ner organ­isa­tions. This arrange­ment sup­ports the Authority’s cash flow pos­i­tion but provid­ing fin­an­cial resources in advance. This advance fund­ing will be applied to the future costs of the pro­gramme, such that, by its com­ple­tion in 2029, all cash received as a res­ult of claims for third-party deliv­ery will have been applied to cov­er the deliv­ery of the over­all programme.
4. Cur­rent liab­il­it­ies: The increase in Trade and oth­er pay­ables, also reflects the increase in activ­ity on Cairngorms 2030. Note 15 (page 113) provides a break­down of cur­rent liab­il­it­ies in both fin­an­cial years.
5. Trade pay­able bal­ances were largely cleared at the end of ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ in pre­par­a­tion for the change of account­ing sys­tem, res­ult­ing in an arti­fi­cially low bal­ance of trade pay­ables at 31 March 2025. The value of trade pay­ables at 31 March 2026 includes some high value invoices received for work on major pro­jects with­in Cairngorms 2030, for which there were no equi­val­ent costs in ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅.
6. Cash received as a res­ult of claims for deliv­ery by third parties (as described above) is held as a liab­il­ity, cat­egor­ised as ​‘deferred income’. The bal­ance of deferred

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income will be applied to cov­er the future costs of deliv­ery over the remain­ing life of the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme until it is cleared to a zero balance.

1. Fund­ing drawn down for peat­land res­tor­a­tion was restric­ted dur­ing the year. Des­pite this, £136,000 was drawn down in advance of need. This cash is held in the Park Authority’s bank account and is recor­ded as deferred income in the State­ment of Fin­an­cial Pos­i­tion; it will be applied as income in ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇. A sim­il­ar situ­ation was recor­ded at the end of ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅. Peat­land res­tor­a­tion tar­gets for the year were met in both years, des­pite the unused budget.

State­ment of Cash Flows (SoCF)

1. SoCF shows the cash effect of the Park Authority’s fin­an­cial activ­it­ies. Oper­a­tions, both core and Cairngorms 2030, res­ul­ted in a net cash out­flow of £14 mil­lion. This fig­ure is made up of both oper­a­tion­al expendit­ure and oper­a­tion­al income but excludes grant-in-aid, which is iden­ti­fied sep­ar­ately, lower down the state­ment, as ​‘Grants from spon­sor­ing Dir­ect­or­ate’ £15.2 million.
2. Expendit­ure on non-cur­rent assets includes £236,000 spent on pur­chas­ing assets, and £194,000 spent on the annu­al repay­ment of leases for Right of Use assets (mainly the Park Authority’s offices and fleet). Cap­it­al assets pur­chased dur­ing the year included:

	£,000
Air source heat­ing (Grant­own office)	78
eBikes (C2030)	44
IT and comms equipment	44
Fur­niture	17

1. In addi­tion to this expendit­ure, assets pre­vi­ously under con­struc­tion in ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ were brought into use: web­site devel­op­ments, new fin­ance system.

Judge­ments and estimates

1. Pre­par­a­tion of fin­an­cial state­ments requires man­age­ment to make sig­ni­fic­ant judge­ments and estim­ates. The Committee’s atten­tion is drawn to page 102 of the annu­al report and accounts, where the most sig­ni­fic­ant of these judge­ments are described in Note 2.

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a) We have made no pro­vi­sion for liab­il­it­ies in respect of extern­ally fun­ded pro­jects, where there is a risk that funds may be advanced to part­ners, but which may fall to be irre­cov­er­able from the fund­ing body. Dis­clos­ure has been made in Note 19 – Con­tin­gent liab­il­it­ies. b) We have made no pro­vi­sion for fin­an­cial guar­an­tees made to landown­ers in respect of poten­tial dam­age to flood banks that might be caused by beaver bur­row­ing. Dis­clos­ure has been made in Note 19 – Con­tin­gent liabilities.

Out­turn for the year

1. We report our per­form­ance to Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment in cash terms; the final res­ult for the year was an over­spend of £9,000, as shown in the table below:

	£’000	£’000
Grant-in-aid	15,219
Net expendit­ure	(15,138)	Per State­ment of Com­pre­hens­ive Net Expenditure
Sur­plus	81
Add back depreciation	340	Non-cash trans­ac­tions
Sur­plus	421
Deduct expendit­ure on Non-cur­rent assets
Tan­gible assets	(236)	Recor­ded in the State­ment of Fin­an­cial Performance
Decrease in lease liability	(194)
		(430)
Amount over-spent		(9)

1. The over­spend of £9,000 rep­res­ents + 0.06% of total income, which is well with­in our KPI of +1% / ‑2% of total income.

Con­clu­sion

1. The Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee is reques­ted to con­sider the draft accounts and to request any fur­ther inform­a­tion or explan­a­tion neces­sary to sup­port their review. If sat­is­fied with the accounts, the Com­mit­tee may wish to indic­ate their approv­al, sub­ject to any amend­ments pro­posed by the Auditor.
2. The Aud­it­or will be present to dis­cuss their audit find­ings and to inform the Com­mit­tee of their pro­pos­al for final­ising the accounts.

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Louise Allen / Kath­er­ine August 14 Septem­ber 2026 louiseallen@​cairngorms.​co.​uk katherineaugust@​cairngorms.​co.​uk