Issue - meetings

To agree a minor amendment to the FFL Articles of Association.

Agreed to:

·       approve the change of date in relation to the requirement for FFL to provide the final audited accounts to the Council from 31 July to reflect the requirement of The Accounts and Audit (Amendment) Regulations 2022. The current requirements of the Regulations will result in the final audited accounts being submitted by FFL to the Council by 30 September in each financial year until the 2027/28 accounts have been completed;

·       that the date that the FFL is required to submit final audited accounts to the Council should continue to reflect the requirements outline in The Accounts and Audit (Amendment) Regulations 2022 both now and in the future;

·       delegate to the S151 Officer or such other official as appropriate the responsibility to mirror the amended final audited accounts submission date in the FFL Articles of Association to reflect the requirements of The Accounts and Audit (Amendment) Regulations 2022 and any other relevant documents which contain this information.

Members considered the updated Articles of Association report presented by Anna Goodall.

Members asked questions, made comments and received responses as follows:

·       Councillor Boden stated that members are being asked to delegate the responsibility to make the amendments on the account submission date to the Section 151 Officer, however, the Section 151 Officer in that capacity only acts for the Council or for the shareholder and not for the company and, therefore, he asked officers to clarify whether that is appropriate or whether it should be for somebody else within the company to do that. Anna Goodall responded that consideration had been given to that issue given the fact that the Section 151 Officer is a Council Officer and has a Fenland District Council focus rather than a Fenland Future Limited (FFL) focus. She stated that the Articles of Association was initially written by legal professionals on behalf of FFL and was delegated to FFL, however, she agreed with Councillor Boden that further consideration should be given to the point he has raised with regards to who hold the responsibility for that amendment.

·       Councillor Boden stated that he would, therefore, amend the recommendation in order that it stated that the Section 151 Officer or such other official as is appropriate.

AGREED to

·        approve the change of date in relation to the requirement for FFL to provide the final audited accounts to the Council from 31 July to reflect the requirements of The Accounts and Audit (Amendment) Regulations 2022. The current requirements of the Regulations will result in the final audited accounts being submitted by FFL to the Council by 30 September in each financial year until the 2027/28 accounts have been completed;

·       that the date that FFL is required to submit final audited accounts to the Council should continue to reflect the requirements outlined in The Accounts and Audit (Amendment) Regulations 2022 both now and in the future.

·       delegate to the S151 Officer or such other official as appropriate, the responsibility to mirror the amended final audited accounts submission date in the FFL Articles of Association to reflect the requirements of The Accounts and Audit (Amendment) Regulations 2022 and any other relevant documents which contain this information.