The Senior Management Team (SMT), reporting to the Chief Executive, oversees the performance of the Utility Regulator's functions and duties. It also included an estimate of the total expenditures the utility regulator expected to incur during the year.
PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
License fees are set annually by a determination made by the utility authority - revenue from electricity, gas and water and sewerage license fees in 2021-22 was £8,567m. All electricity consumed in the Danish Supply Authority's offices is generated from renewable sources.
Other Matters to Report
The Utilities Regulator has produced an equality scheme as required by Schedule 9 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 (the Act). The equality scheme sets out how it proposes to fulfill the duties imposed on it by Article 75 of the law.
ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE REPORT
The Board of the Utility Regulator
Board Committees
Other Committees
Statutory Committees
The public services regulator is working closely with the Ministry of Economy on recruitment schemes, which will be looking for successors to the two appointees. The Utilities Regulator and the CRU each pay 50% of the costs of independent members and other costs incurred by the SEM Committee. Details of the remuneration of the Utility Regulator's non-executive board members are set out on page 39.
The nature of the utility regulator's activities only requires it to retain a limited amount of personal data, most of which relates to personnel. Under section 10 of the Government Resources and Accounts Act (Northern Ireland) 2001, the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland (NIAO) is the statutory auditor of the Utility Regulator. If someone is dissatisfied with the Utilities Supervisor's procedures or the way in which the Utilities Supervisor has implemented them, there is a complaints procedure.
The Health and Safety Committee of the Utilities Regulator is responsible for overseeing a safe and healthy working environment. It reviews the regulator's public sector health and safety statement for best practice in the public sector.
STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTING OFFICER’S RESPONSIBILITIES
GOVERNANCE STATEMENT
The ARC Terms of Reference (ToR) are referred to the Council as part of the ARC report and an overview is presented to the board annually. The Utilities Regulator also recognizes that a professionally qualified financial director is not a member of the Board. However, the skills and balance of knowledge are considered annually as part of the Board's assessment process.
The Board and its committees have accommodated public health restrictions by continuing to use videoconferencing technology (while holding one Board meeting and one in-person Remuneration Committee meeting in March 2022). The Committee was provided with regular updates on the measures taken by the executive team in relation to Covid-19, supplemented by a review by the Audit Committee and the Risk and Remuneration Committee of relevant aspects of the Public Utilities Regulator's response. The committee will oversee ongoing work with the DfE to facilitate the implementation of the Energy Strategy.
The board continued to receive briefings on the internal electricity market, which was also a standing item on the board's agenda. Given the importance of the Energy Strategy, the Board held a workshop with senior DfE officials at the March 2022 meeting.
Board Committees Standing Committees
William Emery is not a member of the Audit and Risk Committee or the Remuneration Committee, but is entitled to attend all meetings. The SEM Committee, a statutory committee of the Utility Regulator and the CRU, was established on 1 November 2007. The Committee was established following amendments to the Electricity Regulation Act 1991 and the Electricity Single Wholesale Market (Northern Ireland) Order 2007. regarding to the functions, powers and duties relating to the regulation of the SEM.
The main objective of the SEM Committee is to protect the interests of electricity consumers by promoting, where necessary, effective competition regarding the sale and purchase of electricity within the SEM. All members of the Board of Directors and members of the Senior Management Team are present. The board and SMT have conducted a self-assessment and we have appointed Baker Tilly to take on the next phase of work.
Baker Tilly will facilitate a board workshop in early 2022-2023 to further discuss the key themes emerging from the study. The previous review of board effectiveness sought comments on the conduct of board meetings in general, the agendas and the quality of information and data received.
Audit Arrangements
Risk Environment
The Information Management Committee, which is an internal group of staff across the directorates that oversees related management issues, keeps policies under review and considers actions to be taken should a breach of one of the policies occur. In particular, the Danish Supply Authority's continued compliance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation has included the maintenance of registers cataloging personal data held, as defined by the GDPR, who holds them, where they are held, for how long, with which authority and with what purpose in mind . The Utility Regulator also took part in the NIAO NFI exercise in 2020-21 and none of the matches identified as part of it raised potential issues of fraud.
The utility regulator made limited references to it under the terms of the Public Interest Disclosure Order. Internal and external whistleblowing guides are in place and are reviewed annually by the Audit and Risk Committee to ensure that they remain in line with the latest guidelines and the Department of Economics also periodically reviews the matters that can be referred to the Utilities Regulator in terms of the legislation become . Staff and external directories are published on the intranet and public website respectively and both form part of the Management Directory to which all staff have access.
The Budget (Northern Ireland) Bill 2022 also included a vote on the bill which authorized ministries to access cash and use funds for the first months of the 2022-23 financial year. In the event of delay, the powers available to the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury under section 59 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and section 7 of the Government Resources and Accounts (Northern Ireland) Act 2001 will be used to authorize the cash and use of resources in the interim period.
The Accounting Officer’s Review of Effectiveness
The Assembly passed the Budget (Northern Ireland) Act 2022 in March 2022, which authorized the cash and use of resources for all departments for the 2021-22 year, based on the Executive's final expenditure plans for the year. The cash and resource balance to be completed for the remainder of 2022-23 will be approved by the 2022-23 Main Estimates and the accompanying budget bill based on an agreed 2022-23 budget.
REMUNERATION AND STAFF REPORT
Service Contracts
Remuneration (including salary) and pension rights (audited) The following paragraphs provide details of the remuneration and pension interests of the Utility Regulator Board and the Senior Management Team. There has been no change in the salary of the highest paid director between the years. Salary and pension rights (audited) The following paragraphs provide details of the pension interests of the utility regulator's senior officials.
There were no employer contributions to a partnership retirement account in respect of the Senior Management Team. Performance awards are based on achieved performance levels and are made as part of. No performance awards were payable to any of the Senior Management Team in respect of the 2021-22 financial year (2020-21: nil).
A Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) is the actuarially assessed capitalized value of the pension scheme benefits that a member has accrued at a particular point in time. Employees who joined before the pension auto-enrolment can opt out of the pension arrangements and receive an increase in lieu of employer contributions of 18.5% of base salary.
Average number of persons employed (audited)
Reporting of Civil Service and other compensation schemes – exit packages (audited)
Number of Senior Civil Service Staff by band
Composition of Utility Regulator staff
Staff Policies applied during the year
Statement of Outturn against Assembly Supply (audited)
Summary tables
Consolidated Fund Income
I confirm that I have audited the accounts of the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation for the year ended 31 March 2022 in accordance with the Government Resources and Accounts Act (Northern Ireland) 2001. My responsibilities under these standards are further described in Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the accounting section of this certificate. My staff and I are independent of the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation in accordance with the ethical requirements relevant to my audit of the UK financial statements, including the Financial Reporting Council's Ethical Standard, and have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements.
In the audit of the accounts, I have concluded that the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation's use of the going concern principle in the preparation of the accounts is appropriate. The going concern basis of accounting for the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation has been adopted taking into account the requirements of the Government Reporting Manual, which requires entities to apply the going concern principle in the preparation of financial statements where they expected that the services they provide, will continue in the future. The other information includes the information included in the annual report, apart from the annual accounts, the parts of the accountability report that are described as audited in this report, as well as my audit certificate and endorsement.
My responsibility is to audit, certify and report on the financial statements in accordance with the Government Resources and Accounts (Northern Ireland) Act 2001. A further description of my responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is on the Financial Reporting Council website www www. .frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities.
Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure for the year ended 31 March 2022
- Accounting Convention
- Property, plant and equipment
- Intangible Assets
- Depreciation and Amortisation
- Cost Apportionment
- Revenue Recognition
- Administration and Programme Expenditure
- Net Liabilities
- Value Added Tax
- Foreign Exchange
- Notional Costs
- Operating Leases
- Pensions and Employee Benefits
- Early Departure Costs
- Contingent Liabilities
- Financial Instruments
- Impending application of newly issued accounting standards not yet effective Management has reviewed new accounting standards that have been issued but are not yet
- Statement of Operating Expenditure by Operating Segment
- Reconciliation between Operating Segments and SoCNE
- Other Programme Expenditure 2021-22 2020-21
- Income
- Other Operating Income
- Property, plant and equipment
- Intangible assets
- Capital and other commitments 1 Capital Commitments
- Commitments under leases
- Other financial commitments
- Financial Instruments
- Cash and cash equivalents
- Trade receivables, financial and other assets
- Trade payables, financial and other liabilities
- Provisions for liabilities and charges
- Contingent liabilities
- Financial Guarantees, Indemnities and Letter of Comfort
- Related-Party Transactions
- Events after the reporting period Date of authorisation for issue
The cash flow statement shows the changes in cash and cash equivalents of the utility regulator during the reporting period. Electricity license fees are calculated based on a 2011 determination by the utility regulator. The gas permit costs are calculated based on a determination by the utility regulator.
No employer pension contribution is payable by the Services Regulator in respect of those employees who withdraw from the pension scheme. The Services Regulator has financial instruments in the form of trade receivables, cash and cash equivalents and trade payables. It is unlikely that the implementation of IFRS 17 will materially affect the accounts of the Services Regulator.
There were no non-cancelable contracts (other than operating leases) entered into by the Utilities Regulator at 31 March 2022 (£nil at 31 March 2021). However, there is a possibility that, as a result of legal proceedings, the utility regulator would cover part of the appellants' costs. David Newbery is a deputy independent member of SEMC and is a non-executive director of CEPA, a company that provides advisory support to the Public Utilities Regulator.
Tanya reported this role to the Public Utilities Regulator and no conflicts with her involvement were identified.
