Statement of Accounting Officer’s responsibilities

Under section 5(2) of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000, HM Treasury has directed the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to prepare, for each financial year, resource accounts detailing the resources acquired, held or disposed of during the year and the use of resources by the department 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 the FSA and of its net resource outturn, resources applied to objectives, changes in taxpayers’ equity and cash flows for the financial year.

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

1. observe the Accounts Direction issued by HM Treasury, including the relevant accounting and disclosure requirements, and apply suitable accounting policies on a consistent basis;
2. make judgements and estimates on a reasonable basis;
3. 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
4. prepare the accounts on a going concern basis.

HM Treasury has appointed the Chief Executive as Accounting Officer of the FSA. 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 the FSA’s assets, are set out in Managing Public Money published by the HM Treasury.

The Accounting Officer is required to confirm that, as far as she is aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the entity’s auditors are unaware, and the
Accounting Officer has taken all the steps that she ought to have taken to make herself aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the entity’s auditors are aware of that information.

The Accounting Officer is required to confirm that the annual report and accounts as a whole is fair, balanced and understandable and that she has personal responsibility for the annual report and accounts and the judgments required for determining that it is fair, balanced and understandable.

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