Recommendation 26

For the past four years, the Department has failed to publish the Council’s Annual Report and Accounts in a timely manner, and the Department acknowledged that the process was much longer and more protracted than it would like. It published the accounts for 2020–21, 2021–22 and 2022–23 together in October 2024, which meant that some information about the Council and the RFCAs’ financial performance was not publicly available until more than four years after it had occurred. At the time of our inquiry, the Department had not published the 2023–24 accounts, more than 35 Qq 39 to 42; C&AG’s Report, para 2.21 36 Q 29; C&AG’s Report, para 2.18 37 Q 29; C&AG’s Report, para 2.19 38 Q 34; C&AG’s Report, para 2.20 39 Q 37 16 a year after the end of that financial year.40 The Department said that delays in publishing the accounts were in part due to the structure in which it operates, whereby accounts are prepared by each of the 13 RFCAs and then consolidated by the Council. While the Council is responsible for producing a consolidated Annual Report and Accounts, the Department is responsible for publishing it.41 The Department said that in the longer term, the answer would lie in setting up an NDPB as a single entity, resulting in a streamlined approach to financial accounting. It added that, in the short term, it was looking at ways to speed up the process to publish accounts. This included the Council ensuring that the RFCAs had common processes and systems that would speed up the supply of financial information to it.42