Members of the public will have the chance to inspect Warwickshire County Council's accounts – and the paperwork behind them – from next week. 

Having done their sums for the financial year, councils are legally obliged to make available all books, deeds, contracts, bills, vouchers and receipts for a period of 30 working days.

The rights extend to all Warwickshire residents on the electoral roll, people with an interest – for example those who work or pay rates in the county – and journalists. Copies of the documentation must also be made available but the council can charge a fee for those.

The council recently published its financial outturn which showed that £24.753 million more than planned was spent on delivering council services across 2024-25.

The overall shortfall ended up below £2 million due to the planned use of reserves – pots of money kept aside for a rainy day – reliance on investment funds and utilising the statutory override for the dedicated schools grant (DSG), a national initiative leant on by most councils to ringfence gaps in education funding without impacting on other services. 

The rights also extend to capital spending, money spent on physical things like infrastructure, buildings, machinery or vehicle fleets.

Warwickshire County Council has confirmed the six-week period will begin on Tuesday, July 1, and end on Monday, August 11, 2025. 

There are limitations. The rights only apply to records related to ins or outs for the respective financial year – in this case 2024-25 – and other than the salaries of senior managers who earn £50,000 per year or more, personal information about staff is kept private. Some information can also be withheld if it would prejudice commercial confidentiality. 

The six-week timeframe is strict and also applies to any objections that could arise as a result. 

The right to raise formal questions or object to elements of the accounts is limited to Warwickshire residents on the electoral roll.

Questions can be raised with either the council or its external auditor but if that doesn't resolve the matter, electors who believe that something unlawful has taken place can ask the auditor to look into it further or even take the matter to court.

It is not a process to be utilised by anyone who simply doesn't like the decisions taken but if the objector can show the council has spent or received money without powers to do so, taken from or added to the wrong fund or account, or spent on something that it had the right to but did so through an unreasonable or irrational decision then the auditor may intervene. 

There is also the softer option of asking the auditor to publish a report in the public interest if the council's methods of securing best value for money are flagged as a legitimate concern but even unlawful acts may not be taken further if the auditor believes it would cost more to fix the problem than leave it, to be a trivial matter or if the objector is deemed to be making malicious or repetitive complaints.

The National Audit Office – the UK's independent public spending watchdog – has published detailed guidance on exercising your rights. It can be found by visiting here.

Details of how to arrange viewing documents and the auditor's contact details are due to appear on the annual accounts section of Warwickshire County Council's website ahead of the six-week window opening.