Commentary on Provisions Charity accounts Section 11 – Independent reports: minor and consequential modifications
68.This section of the Act makes a number of consequential changes to the 2005 Act as a result of the change made by section 10(2)(a)(i) of the Act under which the core requirement for an independent examiner’s or auditor’s report is now moved into primary legislation (see paragraph 64 above).
69.Specifically—
	Section 4 is adjusted to clarify that any accounts submitted by an applicant wishing to become a charity should also be accompanied (where relevant) by any associated report. This will not be an “independent report on accounts” as defined in the Act because that is relevant only to charities, but would cover (for example) an audited report which a company has had to submit to Companies House under section 441 of the Companies Act 2006 but which does not form part of its statement of account.
	Section 23 is adjusted so that the existing right to a copy of a charity’s latest statement of account (where that request is reasonable) now also extends to the independent report.
	Section 44(4) is adjusted to confirm that the ability to make further provision by regulations under that section includes the ability to make further provision about the independent report. While this was already within the breadth of the power, now that the core requirement for the report is included within the section itself, it is considered appropriate to include mention of it for clarity.
	Section 106 is adjusted to include an Act-wide definition of the term “independent report on accounts”.