4.4 The Annual Report and Accounts
The Board is responsible for approving the annual accounts and ensuring that the Minister is provided with the annual report and accounts to be laid before the Scottish Parliament. The accounting requirements for a public body will normally be set out in its founding legislation and/or its Management Statement and Financial Memorandum. On that basis, the Scottish Executive will issue an Accounts Direction, that will set out the form and content of the accounts.
Public bodies are required by the Scottish Executive to produce an annual report and, where they manage their own budget, accounts as the primary means of reporting on their activities to Ministers, the sponsor Department, the Scottish Parliament and the public.
Annual reports must contain certain key information, typically including:
- information about the body and its objectives;
- achievements and performance against key targets;
- contribution towards Efficient Government;
- performance against any Scottish Executive quality initiatives; and
- business prospects and corporate strategy.
The format of the Report is not fixed and the use of photographs and graphs as well as narrative is recommended. You should have been provided with a copy of the latest Annual Report and, where appropriate, Accounts as part of your induction pack. If not, you can easily obtain one from the public body concerned. The Accounts are subject to scrutiny by external audit. External audit arrangements are covered in Section 4.9.