The Parish Council must be confident that whenever it spends money it has the legal power (it is not acting beyond its powers), it follows lawful procedures, it does not take unnecessary risk, transactions are transparent and Councillors conform to standards in public decision making.

Sound financial management is so important that it is regulated by Acts of Parliament and statutory instruments. Legislation reflects the modern approach to ALL local government – Councils are responsible for public money and must therefore be professional, accountable, transparent and risk free in conducting business.

Each November Parish Council Committees discuss budgets for the following financial year. They look at projected activity for the year and decides where their budget will be spent. The Finance & General Purposes Committee looks at all budget requests, including their own, offsets any projected carry forward to come to the final budget. This then becomes the Precept. In January, full Council look at the budget and recommended Precept and formally resolve it.

The Parish Council is required by law to keep accounts showing all transactions. All payments made by the Parish Council are authorised by two Councillors and will appear in the Agendas and Minutes of Full Council meetings.

The accounts at the end of the financial year are audited by an Internal Auditor and are then sent to an External Auditor (annual return).

By law any interested person has the right to inspect the Council’s accounts. At the end of the financial year the Parish Council will advertise that they are available for people to inspect on the noticeboard and on the website. You have 30 days to look through the accounting statements in the Annual Return and any supporting documents. The Annual Return documentation will be published on the website. Once the External Auditor has inspected the accounts a notice on the completion of the audit will also be published on the website and on the noticeboard.

All documentation pertaining to the accounts and audit can be found by clicking on the relevant tab.  The Income and Expenditure Sheet gives a breakdown of where money has been spent.  Please note that under Staffing Costs, this includes National Insurance payments and Pension contributions which, by law, have to be made by Matlock Bath Parish Council.

For 2021/2022, the precept for Matlock Bath Parish Council is £28,000.