Issue - meetings
Amendment to the Constitution – Final Approval of the Council’s Annual Accounts
Meeting: 25/11/2025 - The Executive (Item 6)
6 Amendment to the Constitution – Final Approval of the Council’s Annual Accounts 
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To submit the report of the Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer.
Additional documents:
Decision:
It was resolved to recommend to Full Council that it approves the proposed amendment to the Constitution to provide for the final approval of the Council’s Annual Accounts by the Governance and Audit Committee, in place of the Council.
Minutes:
The report of the Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer which sought the Executive’ s view on a proposed amendment to the Constitution to provide for the final approval of the Council’s Annual Accounts by the Governance and Audit Committee in place of the Council, was presented for consideration.
Councillor Robin Williams, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Member for Finance, Corporate Business and Customer Experience presented the report noting that the amendment was requested by the Section 151 Officer following consultation with Audit Wales to align the Council’s arrangements with those now operating in principal councils in Wales. Audit Wales’s Annual Plan has a clear goal to bring forward the local government audit timetable, with the accounts authorisation date for 2025/26 set at 30 September 2026, which is a month earlier than in 2024/25. If approval remains with the Full Council, the September 2026 meeting would need to be rescheduled or an extraordinary meeting convened. Delegating authority to the Governance and Audit Committee would provide a more efficient approval process avoiding the cost and inconvenience of an extraordinary meeting of the Full Council while not disadvantaging councillors or the public as the accounts would still be available for examination in the same way. Councillor Robin Williams highlighted that the proposed amendment would only remove the final stage of the current process i.e. approval by the Full Council.
It was resolved to recommend to Full Council that it approves the proposed amendment to the Constitution to provide for the final approval of the Council’s Annual Accounts by the Governance and Audit Committee, in place of the Council.