Agar documents

Question

AGAR for 23/24 signed off en-bloc at Parish council meeting. Previous clerk presented the document's at the appropriate meeting and although time consuming each document was presented and if agreed signed. New Cllrs had an understanding of the AGAR requirements. As I have said the Chairman asked are they all agreed, vote taken, signed off.. Documents are not being shown on the website. Should they be?

How does a council, and public stand if, within the Right to View period, the clerk goes on holiday and the accounts and associated  papers are not available to view. 

Answer 1

What size council are you?  There are different rules whether you are an exempt council (below £25,000 turnover), over £200,000 turnover or between the two.
However, it is good practice to put all documents on the website, regardless of what legislation requires.  In my council draft documents are on the website and then replaced with signed documents once these are available.  They are definitely there by the the period for the exercise of electors rights starts.  When was your meeting when the document was agreed?

Comments

Thank you. answers are, under 25,000, Exemption applied.  meeting beginning of the week. Notice of Public rights is on noticeboard but nothing at all on website. Asset register not available to public.

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Thank you.  The Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities applies then and the deadline for publishing the various documents (most of which are satisfied by publishing the entire AGAR but some authorities put separate documents up) is 1st July of the year following the end of the financial year to which the documents relate.  They do need to be published on the website and the notice of electors rights needs to be on the notice board (assuming there is one).  There is a bit of time then.
As a previous clerk to both large and small councils, I do recall that with limited working time and a very busy annual meeting at which the financial documents are agreed, getting all the actions done from the meeting can be a challenge and surprisingly time consuming.  A gentle reminder in a couple of weeks if nothing shows up by then might be appropriate but you're still within the time limits.

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The notice of electors rights legally only needs to be published on the website, however it is good practice to also put it on a noticeboard.

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Apologies to all
I realised that the word we was put in instead of the word they .
 I am only a  member of the public

Answer 2

Did the agenda item for the approval of the AGAR list the documents individually, as the Governance Statement must be approved before the Accounting Statements? If the agenda item was something along the lines of "Approve the AGAR" you have not satisfied the requirements to approve the documents in the correct sequence.

As a smaller authority claiming exemption, you must publish additional information on your website. All of the following are required by 1 July:-

Governance Statement, Accounting Statements, Certificate of Exemption, Internal Audit Report, bank reconciliation form, analysis of variances form, and notice of public rights with guidance.

Comments

Agenda just stated Approve AGAR documents.
Limited documents on website. As I am only a member of the public one is made to feel one has no right to ask for documentation.