PARISH MEETINGS ONLYPage 2 of 6
Guidance notes for Parish Meetings on completing Part 2PM of the Annual
Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) 2020/21, Sections 1 and 2
• A Parish Meeting that wishes to declare itself exempt from the requirement for a limited assurance
review must do so at a meeting held between 1 April and 30 June 2021. It should not submit its AGAR
to the external auditor.
• The Certificate of Exemption should be returned to the external auditor no later than 30 June 2021.
Reminder letters will incur a charge of £40 +VAT.
• The Parish Meeting must comply with Proper Practices in completing Sections 1 and 2 of its AGAR and
the Certificate of Exemption. Proper Practices are found in the Practitioners’ Guide* which is updated
from time to time and contains everything needed to prepare successfully for the financial year-end.
• The Parish Meeting should receive and note the Annual Internal Audit Report before approving the
Annual Governance Statement and the accounts.
• The Annual Governance Statement (Section 1) must be approved on the same day or before the
accounts (Section 2) and evidenced by the agenda or minute references.
• The Chairman must certify the accounts (Section 2) before they are presented to the authority for
approval. The authority must in this order; consider, approve and sign the accounts.
• The Chairman is required to commence the public rights period as soon as practical after the date of
the AGAR approval.
• Make sure that the AGAR is complete (no highlighted boxes left empty), and is properly signed and
dated. Avoid making amendments to the completed annual return. Any amendments must be approved
by the Parish Meeting and properly initialled.
• Use the checklist provided below to review the AGAR for completeness at the meeting at which it is
signed off.
• You must inform your external auditor about any change of Chairman, and provide a relevant
email address and telephone number.
• The Parish Meeting must publish numerical and narrative explanations for significant variances in the
accounting statements on page 6. Guidance is provided in the Practitioners’ Guide* which may assist.
• Make sure that the accounting statements add up and the balance carried forward from the previous
year (Box 7 of 2020) equals the balance brought forward in the current year (Box 1 of 2021).
• The Chairman, on behalf of the Parish Meeting, must set the commencement date for the exercise of
public rights of 30 consecutive working days which must include the first ten working days of July.
• The Parish Meeting must publish on a suitable website or publicly display in the local area the
information required by Regulation 15 (2), Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015, including the period
for the exercise of public rights and the name and address of the external auditor before 1 July 2021.
Completion checklist – ‘No’ answers mean you may not have met requirements Yes No
All sections
Section 1
Section 2
Internal Audit Report
Have all highlighted boxes been completed?
For any statement to which the response is ‘no’, is an explanation available
for publication?
Has an explanation of significant variations from last year to this year been
published or displayed?
Is an explanation of any difference between Box 7 and Box 8 available, should
a question be raised by a local elector and/or an interested party?
Have all highlighted boxes been completed by the internal auditor and
explanations provided?
Have the dates set for the period for the exercise of public rights been published?
Has the Parish Meeting’s approval of the accounting statements been confirmed
by the signature of the Chairman of the approval meeting?
Annual Governance and Accountability Return 2020/21 Part 2PM Parish Meetings
*Governance and Accountability for Smaller Authorities in England – a Practitioners’ Guide to Proper Practices,
can be downloaded from www.nalc.gov.ukPage 3 of 6
ENTER NAME OF PARISH MEETING
ENTER AMOUNT £00,000
ENTER AMOUNT £00,000
Annual Governance and Accountability Return 2020/21 Part 2PM Parish Meetings
ONLY a copy of this Certificate of Exemption should be returned EITHER by email OR by post (not
both) as soon as possible after certification to your external auditor but no later than 30 June 2021.
Reminder letters incur a charge of £40 +VAT.
Telephone number
ENTER EMAIL ADDRESS TELEPHONE NUMBER
Email
Certificate of Exemption – AGAR 2020/21 Part 2PM
To be completed by all Parish Meetings that neither received gross income nor incurred gross
expenditure exceeding £25,000 in the year of account ended 31 March 2021, and that wish to
certify themselves as exempt from a limited assurance review under Section 9 of the Local Audit
(Smaller Authorities) Regulations 2015
There is no requirement to have a limited assurance review or to submit an Annual Governance and Accountability Return to the external auditor, provided that the Parish Meeting has certified itself as exempt at a Parish
Meeting held between 1 April and 30 June 2021 and a completed Certificate of Exemption is submitted no later
than 30 June 2021 notifying the external auditor.
certifies that during the financial year 2020/21, the higher of the Parish Meeting’s total gross income for the year
or total gross annual expenditure for the year did not exceed £25,000
Total annual gross income for the Parish Meeting 2020/21:
Total annual gross expenditure for the Parish Meeting 2020/21:
There are certain circumstances in which an Parish Meeting will be unable to certify itself as exempt, so that a
limited assurance review will still be required. If a Parish Meeting is unable to confirm the statements below then it
cannot certify itself as exempt and it must submit the completed Annual Governance and Accountability Return
Part 3PM to the external auditor to undertake a limited assurance review for which a fee of £200 +VAT will be payable.
By signing this Certificate of Exemption you are confirming that:
• This parish has no Parish Council
• The authority was in existence on 1st April 2017
• In relation to the preceding financial year (2019/20), the external auditor has not:
• issued a public interest report in respect of the Parish Meeting or any entity connected with it
• made a statutory recommendation to the Parish Meeting
• issued an advisory notice under paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 8 to the Local Audit and Accountability Act
2014 (“the Act”), and not withdrawn the notice
• commenced judicial review proceedings under section 31(1) of the Act
• made an application under section 28(1) of the Act for a declaration that an item of account is unlawfu
