NALC publishes the 2025 edition of the Practitioners' Guide
The latest 2025 edition of the Practitioners’ Guide is here, bringing important updates for authorities preparing Annual Governance and Accountability Returns (AGAR) for financial years starting on or after 1 April 2025.
The most notable changes to the Practitioners’ Guide this year are:
- Email management — Every authority must now have a generic email account hosted on an authority-owned domain, for example, clerk@abcparishcouncil.gov.uk or clerk@abcparishcouncil.org.uk rather than abcparishclerk@gmail.com or abcparishclerk@outlook.com.
- New Assertion — A new Assertion 10 has been added to clarify data compliance, previously covered under Assertion 3.
- Updated Assertion — Guidance on Assertion 9 (Trust Funds) has been updated to reflect changes to the AGAR for 2025/26 when Cell 11a and Cell 11b will be replaced with a single Cell 11.
- These updates streamline processes, enhance transparency, and improve governance standards to help ensure your authority is ready for these changes.
The Smaller Authorities Proper Practices Panel (SAPPP) is responsible for issuing proper practices about the governance and accounts of smaller authorities. We sit as members to represent the sector alongside the Association of Drainage Authorities and the Society of Local Council Clerks, together with stakeholder partners representing the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the National Audit Office, and a representative of the internal auditors and the external audit firms appointed to smaller authorities. We also provide the secretariat to the SAPPP.