Under the Government Resource and Accounts Act 2000, ORR is required to prepare resource accounts for each financial year, in conformity with a Treasury direction, detailing the resources required, held, or disposed of during the year and the use of resources by ORR during the year.

The accounts are prepared on an accruals basis and must give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of ORR and of its income and expenditure, Statement of Financial Position and cash flows for the financial year.

In preparing the accounts, the Accounting Officer is required to comply with the ‘Government Financial Reporting Manual’ and, in particular, to: 

• Observe all relevant accounting and disclosure requirements, and apply suitable accounting policies on a consistent basis;
• Make judgments and estimates on a reasonable basis;
• State whether applicable accounting standards, as set out in the ‘Government Financial Reporting Manual’, have been followed, and disclose and explain any material departures in the accounts;
• Prepare the financial statements on a going concern basis; and
• Confirm that the annual report and accounts as a whole is fair, balanced and understandable, and take personal responsibility for the annual report and accounts and the judgments required for determining that it is fair, balanced and understandable.

The Treasury has appointed the Chief Executive as ORR's Accounting Officer. The responsibilities of an Accounting Officer, including responsibility for the propriety and regularity of the public finances for which the Accounting Officer is answerable, for keeping proper records and for safeguarding ORR's assets, are set out in ‘Managing Public Money’ published by HM Treasury.

As the Accounting Officer, I have taken all the steps that I ought to have taken to make myself aware of any relevant audit information, and to establish that ORR’s auditors are aware of that information. So far as I am aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the auditors are unaware.