Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Audit and Risk Committee Paper 1 13 March 2026 Page 1 of 2

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For decision

Title: Annu­al audit plan ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆

Cov­er paper pre­pared by: Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Operations

Annex pre­pared by: Tom Reid, Audit Dir­ect­or, For­vis Maz­ars LLP

Pur­pose

This paper presents the extern­al auditor’s plan for the forth­com­ing audit of the ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ Annu­al Report and Accounts.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to: a) Read the report; and b) Raise any ques­tions on the planned audit approach with the Extern­al Auditor.

Exec­ut­ive summary

1. In the pre­face to the plan, the Aud­it­or emphas­ises the import­ance of two-way com­mu­nic­a­tion with the Com­mit­tee. They also ask for views on / know­ledge of spe­cif­ic mat­ters: a) Wheth­er you have iden­ti­fied any oth­er risks (busi­ness, laws & reg­u­la­tion, fraud, going con­cern, etc.) that may res­ult in mater­i­al mis­state­ments in the fin­an­cial state­ments. b) If you are aware of any sig­ni­fic­ant com­mu­nic­a­tions between the Park Author­ity and its reg­u­lat­ors. c) If there are any mat­ters that you con­sider war­rant par­tic­u­lar atten­tion dur­ing our audit and/​or any areas where you would like addi­tion­al pro­ced­ures to be undertaken.

2. The plan sets out the audit approach, which is risk-based and focused on those areas of the annu­al accounts where mater­i­al mis­state­ment is con­sidered most likely to occur, par­tic­u­larly those areas where judge­ment has been applied.

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Page 2 of 2

1. Respect­ive respons­ib­il­it­ies of the aud­it­or and of those charged with gov­ernance are defined.

2. The frame­work for the wider scope of pub­lic sec­tor audit under the Code of Audit Prac­tice is described.

3. Audit fees for the year are set out in sec­tion 07 of the report. The fee of £29,357 includes stand­ard audit costs of £17,400 plus an addi­tion­al charge of £11,957 in respect of ​‘addi­tion­al work required due to the imple­ment­a­tion of a new fin­ance system’.

4. Maz­ars’ com­mit­ment to inde­pend­ence is confirmed.

5. Cur­rent year updates and forth­com­ing account­ing issues are set out in Appendix B.

Con­clu­sion

1. The aud­it­or will present their report and answer any ques­tions raised by the Committee.

Louise Allen louiseallen@​cairngorms.​co.​uk 04 March 2026