Update to the 2016/17 Accounting Code

Following its decision to postpone implementation of the new measurement requirements for the Highways Network Asset until the 2017/18 year, CIPFA/LASAAC has issued the Update to the 2016/17 Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom (the Code).

For more on the decision to postpone the measurement requirements please see the announcement issued by CIPFA/LASAAC on 14 November 2016, Update from the CIPFA/LASAAC Local Authority Code Board on the Measurement of the Highways Network Asset (PDF, 167 KB).

The Update to the 2016/17 Code reverses the previous implementation provisions for the new measurement requirements in the 2016/17 Code. References to the Highways Network Asset will no longer apply for the 2016/17 year. This will mean that the infrastructure class of assets for 2016/17 will continue to be accounted for as in previous years, ie at depreciated historical cost (and it will include the components of the Highways Network Asset).

The Update to the 2016/17 Code also includes those changes introduced by statutory provisions after the 2016/17 Code was published ie:

• the Housing Revenue Account (Accounting Practices) Directions 2016 disclosure requirements for English housing authorities, and
• the Local Authority (Capital Finance and Accounting) (Scotland) Regulations 2016.

The Update to the 2016/17 Code can be downloaded from the CIPFA website.

• CIPFA IFRS-based Code page