Finance and spending

Where Our Money Comes from

The majority of the Authority’s funding is provided by Central Government; more specifically the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as the National Park Grant. In addition to this, income is earned from a variety of other sources such as other specific grants for projects, planning fee income, investment income, and income in relation to the use of Authority property by third parties, car park charges and retail sales.

Financial Planning and Budgeting

The Authority prepares a Medium Term Financial Strategy; the basis of this is included in the Business Plan. These forecasts are reviewed annually by management. The Authority approves a balanced start budget in advance of the start of the financial year which, wherever practical, provides indicative budgets for the following two years. The Finance Risk Audit and Standards Committee receives quarterly updates on budgetary performance and adjustments to the budget within the year.

Chief Financial Officer (s151 Officer/Treasurer)

Section 151 of the Local Government Act 1972 requires that the Authority makes arrangements for the proper administration of its financial affairs and must appoint a Chief Financial Officer who must be a Member of one of the recognised accountancy bodies. The s151 Officer is also responsible for ensuring that there are adequate provisions for the internal audit of systems which is currently undertaken by Veritau Ltd.

With effect from 1 April 2020 the Authority has appointed Peter Williams as the s151 Officer.

Contact:

The Old Vicarage, Bondgate, Helmsley, York, YO62 5BP

Statutory Accounting and Reporting

Our accounts are prepared in line with appropriate accounting standards and practices and have a reporting period from 1 April to 31 March in the following year.

The draft accounts are approved by the Authority’s Chief Financial Officer by the 31 May and then the accounts and supporting documents are examined by the external auditors who form an opinion on the accounts. This opinion is included in the accounts but also includes statements in relation to the overall effectiveness of the Authority’s systems and processes and in securing value for money.

However due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has changed the reporting dates from 31 May 2020 to 31 August 2020 for the draft accounts and from 31 July 2020 to 30 November 2020 for the full audited accounts. National Park authorities are permitted to publish their accounts earlier than these dates and we have elected to publish the unaudited accounts on 30 June 2020.

Draft Accounts 2019-2020 (pdf)

You may inspect our accounts and certain related documents and also raise questions with the external auditor. Details of how to do this can be found in the public rights of inspection notice which can be found under ‘Useful links and information to download’ below.

The Authority’s current auditors are:

Grant Thornton UK LLP, No 1 Whitehall Riverside, Leeds LS1 4BN