Recommendation 5

The non-coterminous reporting date of the Academies sector risks undermining comparability and weakening accountability for billions of pounds of public money. The WGA consolidation process faces persistent challenges due to the misalignment of financial reporting periods between academies and central government. Academies operate on a financial year ending 31 August, whereas the government’s year ends on 31 March, creating timing mismatches when incorporating academy accounts into the WGA. HM Treasury has previously noted that aligning the academies’ year end with the government’s would not be feasible, citing disruption to the sector’s operational cycle, costly system changes, and the administrative and audit burden of managing two-year ends, which it argues would not represent value for money. We believe this is a very weak argument and require more detailed assessment of the justifications to be convinced that the current approach remains the most appropriate. We note that unincorporated businesses were encouraged by HMRC to change their reporting dates – at considerable cost to each business. recommendation a. Treasury should outline in the Treasury Minute response the discussions held with the Department for Education to align financial year-end dates for academies. 6 b. Treasury should provide, alongside the Treasury Minute response, their value for money assessment of aligning the Academies sector.