Budgets and accounts

Introduction

The Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) provides a focus on both Revenue expenditure (day-to-day running costs of providing services) and Capital expenditure (long term investment in infrastructure like schools and roads).

The department is a support service and delivers all of the strategic and corporate functions traditionally provided by a local authority finance department.

Corporate Finance and Financial Planning Statement of Accounts

Each year the County Council is required to produce a Statement of Accounts. This document sets out a summary of our financial affairs and together with the Annual Plan and many other plans we must produce by law, provides a commentary on our performance. Making sure we are accountable for our work is extremely important and our financial statements help to show how your money has been used. The links below provide access to our Statement of Accounts, the Annual Audit Letter and the accounts of The Somerset Waste Partnership

The Statement of Accounts is available to read by everyone. For more information on these accounts, or to obtain a copy of them (free to Somerset residents) please use links in the Downloads section to download a copy in PDF format.

The annual Statement of Accounts summarises our financial affairs for the year and shows our position at the end of the year (31 March). It includes the following

The Chief Financial Officer’s introduction – highlights some of the most important matters reported in the accounts and comments on any issues that have had a major effect on our finances, before looking ahead to the future
Statement of responsibilities – explains our responsibilities for our financial affairs and how we make sure we carry out these responsibilities properly
Annual Governance Statement – gives the results of our yearly assessment of how well we are managing and controlling risks to achieve our aims and meet the responsibilities we have by law
Statement of accounting policies – summarises the accounting rules and conventions we have used in preparing our accounts
Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement – a summary of our spending on services and where we got the money from
Statement of Movement in Reserves – shows whether we have over- or under-spent against the Council Tax that we raised for the year, taking into account the use of reserves built up in the past and contributions to reserves earmarked for future expenditure
Balance Sheet – shows our financial position as a whole at the start and end of the financial year
Cash-flow Statement – shows the overall movement of cash during the year for revenue and capital
Notes to the Core Financial Statements – provides more information on the figures contained in the above statements
The Pension Fund – summarises the accounts of our Local Government Pension Fund. We use this fund to pay former employees their pensions and other benefits when they retire
Glossary of terms – explains terms that we have used throughout the Statement of Accounts