Section 21 of the Local Government Act 2003 (“the 2003 Act”), and regulations made under it, make provision in respect of accounting practices to be followed by local authorities. Schedule 12 to the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 extends the scope of section 21 of the 2003 Act to include a number of local authority bodies which were not previously subject to that section (“the new bodies”).

The Local Authority (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/3146) (“the 2003 Regulations”) include a number of provisions that were made under section 21 of the 2003 Act, in particular, regulations 27 to 31. These Regulations amend the 2003 Regulations in order to disapply certain of the 2003 Regulations to the new bodies and to make transitional provision for the application of certain regulations from 1st April 2015.

Regulation 2(2) amends regulation 1(2) of the 2003 Regulations to provide that regulations 1 and 27 to 31 may apply bodies that are partly in England and partly in Wales, to ensure consistency with the extended scope of section 21 of the 2003 Act. It also inserts into the 2003 Regulations a new regulation 1(3A) which disapplies regulations 27 to 29 to the new bodies.

Regulations 2(3) to (9) contain transitional provisions which amend certain of the dates from which certain of the 2003 Regulations made under section 21 of the 2003 Act will apply to the new bodies.

Regulation 2(10) updates regulation 31 of the 2003 Regulations to prescribe which publications represent proper practices in relation to accounts for the new bodies. It also updates a reference to a practitioners’ guide to be to the latest edition of that guide. “Governance and Accountability for Local Councils: A Practitioners’ Guide (England) March 2014” is available for download from the Society of Local Council Clerks at http://www.slcc.co.uk/bookstore/category/slcc-publications/1/. A hard copy can be purchased from the same address. “Governance and Accountability in Internal Drainage Boards in England: a Practitioners’ Guide 2006” is available for download from the Association of Drainage Authorities at http://www.ada.org.uk/downloads/other/downloads_page/aud_com/IDBGovernanceandAccountabilityDraftPractitionersGuide2006.pdf. A hard copy can be requested by contacting the Association of Drainage Authorities at http://www.ada.org.uk.

These Regulations (see regulation 2(11)) also make amendments to the schedule to the 2003 Regulations which provides for the calculation of the sub-liability (as defined in regulation 1(5) of the 2003 regulations) which forms part of a local authority’s poolable amount (see regulations 1(5) and 12 of the 2003 regulations).

An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sections is foreseen.