Suggested dates for the Exercise of Public Rights

Without doubt the Period for the Exercise of Public Rights is the one area of the whole AGAR process that Councils have the most problems with. The problems range from simple ignorance of what the legal requirements are, to errors is calculation of the dates.

The Period for the Exercise of Public Rights is a statutory period during which a Local Elector may exercise their rights to inspect documents and raise and objection to the accounts.

The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 sets out in sections 25- 27 what the rights to the access to records and to objection to the accounts.

The Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015, which supplement the requirements of the 2014 Act specify, in Regulation 14, that the rights under sections 25-27 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act may only be exercised 'within a single period of 30 working days'. This is an exact requirement, not a minimum period.

As a consequence of the requirements of the 2014 Act and the 2015 Regulations it is extremely important that Councils set the dates for the Exercise of Public Rights correctly. A failure to do so may infringe on the rights set out in the legislation. It will also result in negative reports from both Internal and External auditors.

The tables below set out a range of possible dates which last for exactly 30 working days. This may be helpful when setting deciding what dates should be specified when making the Announcement of the Period for the Exercise of Public Rights.