FOI Request - LFR Series Returns
Request 101003811464
Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, I am requesting the following information in relation to your council’s LFR Series returns and financial reporting for the year 2023/24:
1. A copy of the council’s LFR return for 2023/24, submitted to the Scottish Government.
2. Any internal guidance, documentation, or mapping tables used to reconcile the LFR return to the council’s published annual accounts.
3. Any internal reconciliation working papers or processes used to derive the LFR submission from your financial ledger or budget monitoring systems.
4. Any correspondence or feedback received from the Scottish Government or Audit Scotland in relation to your LFR submission.
If this information does not exist or cannot be provided within cost limits, please confirm whether:
a) The LFR return is produced manually or through automation,
b) The council holds any mapping between its internal budget structure and the LFR Series categories.
Response 23-07-2025
1. The LFR is published on the Scottish Government website under Publications and “Scottish local government finance statistics (SLGFS) 2023-24: workbooks”. There is a link for each LFR; LFR A0 Statutory Accounts and Funding Basis is reconciled to the audited annual accounts. There is a tab for Moray Council. This information is therefore exempt under section 25 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, information otherwise accessible. For ease of reference please find a link to the web page here:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-slgfs-2023-24-workbooks/
2. The error checks and validation within the LFR document ensure that we balance to our audited annual accounts. The summary attached is one of our working documents and ensures our ledger is balanced back to the accounts overall.
3. Our internal reconciliations documents contain a significant number of links to internal files and databases, as such extracting any of these files will not produce a legislable document as the linked information will break. Nonetheless, we have responded to your extra questions below.
4. No, other than the final acceptance of the submission
a) Manual
b) Our ledger is structured to follow the LFRs. We complete the return in line with the guidance provided by the Scottish Government, making changes each year if required, to ensure we accurately reflect any changes in accounting standards and/or changes to categorisation of expenditure.