Annual Audit letter London Ambulance Service NHS Trust Year ended 31 March July 2015

Transcription

1 Annual Audit letter London Ambulance Service NHS Trust Year ended 31 March July 2015

2 The Board of Directors London Ambulance Service NHS Trust 220 Waterloo Road London SE1 8SD 22 July 2015 Ladies and Gentleman We are pleased to present our Annual Audit Letter summarising the results of our audit for the year ended 31 March This is our final year as auditors of London Ambulance NHS Service NHS Trust and we would like to thank management and staff for their assistance during the course of our audit work. Yours faithfully PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Code of Audit Practice and Statement of Responsibilities of Auditors and of Audited Bodies In March 2014 the Audit Commission issued a revised version of the Statement of responsibilities of auditors and of audited bodies. It is available from the Chief Officer of each audited body. The purpose of the statement is to assist auditors and audited bodies by explaining where the responsibilities of auditors begin and end and what is to be expected of the audited body in certain areas. Our reports and management letters are prepared in the context of this Statement. Reports and letters prepared by appointed auditors and addressed to members or officers are prepared for the sole use of the audited body and no responsibility is taken by auditors to any member or officer in their individual capacity or to any third party. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, 1 Embankment Place, London WC2N 6RH T: +44 (0) , F: +44 (0) , PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England with registered number OC The registered office of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP is 1 Embankment Place, London WC2N 6RH.PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for designated investment business.

3 Contents Introduction 2 Audit findings 3 Appendices 4 Appendix A. Summary of recommendations 5 Appendix B. Final fees 6 Annual Audit letter PwC Contents

4 Introduction The purpose of this letter This letter provides the Board of Directors of London Ambulance Service NHS Trust ( the Trust ) with a high level summary of the results of our audit for the year ended 31 March 2015, in a form that is accessible for you and other interested stakeholders. We have already reported the detailed findings from our audit work to the Audit Committee in the following reports: Audit opinion on the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2015, incorporating the value for money conclusion. Report to those charged with Governance (ISA (UK&I) 260). We have included in this report our significant audit findings. You can find a summary of our key recommendations in Appendix A. Scope of work We carried out our audit work in accordance with the Audit Commission s Code of Audit Practice (NHS), International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland) and other relevant guidance issued by the Audit Commission. You are responsible for preparing and publishing the Trust s financial statements, including the Annual Governance Statement. You are also responsible for putting in place proper arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in your use of the Trust s resources. As auditors we need to: form an opinion on the financial statements; review the Trust s Annual Governance Statement; form a conclusion on the arrangements that you have in place to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in your use of the Trust s resources; and carry out any other work specified by the Audit Commission. We have carried out our audit work in line with our 2014/15 Audit Plan that we issued in February Annual Audit letter PwC 2

5 Audit findings Accounts We audited the Trust s accounts in line with approved Auditing Standards and issued an unqualified audit opinion on 3 June Our value for money conclusion We carried out sufficient, relevant work in line with the Audit Commission s guidance, so that we could conclude on whether you had in place, for the year ended 31 March 2015, proper arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in your use of the Trust s resources. In line with Audit Commission requirements, our conclusion was based on two criteria: The organisation has proper arrangements in place for securing financial resilience; and The organisation has proper arrangements for challenging how it secures economy, efficiency and effectiveness. To reach our conclusion, we carried out a programme of work that was based on our risk assessment. We issued an unqualified value for money conclusion Annual Governance Statement The aim of the Annual Governance Statement is to give a sense of how successfully the Trust has coped with the challenges it faces and of how vulnerable the organisation s performance is or might be, drawing on evidence on governance, risk management and controls. We reviewed the Annual Governance Statement to see whether it complied with relevant guidance and whether it was misleading or inconsistent with what we know about the Trust. We found no areas of concern to report in this context. Annual Audit letter PwC 3

6 Appendices Annual Audit letter PwC 4

7 Appendix A. Summary of recommendations Recommendation Management s response Target Implementation Date Accruals process for aged good received but not invoiced We noted that good received but not invoiced (GRNI) raised on the accounting system that are over six months are not included in the monthly accruals calculation. As a result the value of the aged GRNI is not included in the financial statements. Although the 6 month GRNI cut off is felt to be a reasonable policy to avoid overaccruals in expenditure it is accepted that at year end a review of material GRNIs over 6 months old should take place to ensure completeness. As such the Trust will ensure this recommendation is embedded into the 15/16 yearend review process. 31 March 2016 Management should monitor as part of their year-end procedures a review of all GRNI notes raised on the accounting system that are older than six months as at the 31 March. For any significant year on year movements, the GRNI balance should be recognised in the accruals balance on the financial statements. Annual Audit letter PwC 5

8 Appendix B. Final fees We reported our fee proposals in our audit plan. Our actual fees charged were as follows: 2014/15 outturn 2014/15 fee proposal 2013/14 final outturn Scale fee 75,954 75,954 75,954 Total audit fee 75,954 75,954 75,954 Annual Audit letter PwC 6

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10 In the event that, pursuant to a request which London Ambulance Service NHS Trust has received under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (as the same may be amended or re-enacted from time to time) or any subordinate legislation made thereunder (collectively, the Legislation ), London Ambulance Service NHS Trust is required to disclose any information contained in this report, it will notify PwC promptly and will consult with PwC prior to disclosing such report. London Ambulance Service NHS Trust agrees to pay due regard to any representations which PwC may make in connection with such disclosure and to apply any relevant exemptions which may exist under the Legislation to such report. If, following consultation with PwC, London Ambulance Service NHS Trust discloses any this report or any part thereof, it shall ensure that any disclaimer which PwC has included or may subsequently wish to include in the information is reproduced in full in any copies disclosed PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. All rights reserved. 'PricewaterhouseCoopers' refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (a limited liability partnership in the United Kingdom) or, as the context requires, other member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity CM-UK