Background
Annual reports are a key means by which an entity tells the story of its year. Public annual reporting, done well, enables stakeholders to understand – with trust and confidence – an entity’s strategy and the risks it faces, how much money has been spent and on what, and what has been achieved as a result. It enables stakeholders to hold the entity to account effectively.
Scope
This report considers the annual reports and, where available publicly, the annual accounts produced by the States of Jersey and 37 Jersey entities that are either:
- identified by the States of Jersey in its annual report as controlled by the States; or
- established by the States Assembly and required to prepare an annual report and/or accounts.
The content of each annual report is reviewed against a set of good practice criteria that encompasses:
- minimum content that considered by the C&AG to be best practice for accountability to public stakeholders
- essential elements of a good annual report; and
- over-arching principles for good public reporting
Alongside the report, the C&AG published an Annual Reporting Good Practice Guide which draws out examples from better performing entities to assist all entities in improving their performance.
Conclusions
High quality annual reports are fundamental to effective accountability. The best reports demonstrate and communicate impact and value for money in an open, balanced and engaging way.
There is value in developing a coherent framework for annual reports of public sector and publicly funded entities. Appropriate financial information should be available publicly alongside or with the annual report of the entity.
All entities should aspire to improve the content and accessibility of their public annual reports. Strategic objectives should be reported transparently, should be assessed against risks and should be measured against relevant, quantifiable key performance indicators on a consistent basis.
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