The purpose of ENTRUST’s compliance function is to provide independent assurance to HMRC that Landfill Communities Fund (LCF) monies have been spent compliantly in accordance with the Landfill Tax Regulations (1996) (Regulations) and with ENTRUST guidance.
The 2021/2022 Compliance Programme has been developed to assist ENTRUST to continue to:
- Ensure the review process covers the maximum amount of project activity and unspent funds reported by EBs;
- Focus ENTRUST’s resources on visiting and reviewing the higher risk EBs and a greater number of project sites;
- Ensure sufficiently detailed and high-quality reviews of the higher risk EBs and projects are completed;
- Deliver HMRC’s Strategic Priorities for the regulation of the Fund in the areas of:
- EB Administration costs;
- Funds held by EBs;
- Contributing Third Party (CTP) payments;
- Revocation of EBs; and
- Sector benchmarking data.
The 2021/2022 programme has been based on the actual performance during 2020/2021 and on our assurance work during 2020/2021 which identified some key compliance issues following visits to project sites.
The plan therefore includes the requirement to undertake an increased level of scrutiny of individual projects and project sites, when it becomes safe to do so, and a Project Risk Model has been developed to identify the higher risk projects.
The Project Risk model follows the same format and principles as the current EB Risk Model. Projects are awarded an individual risk score compiled from a number of key risk indicators which are based on the data held on ENTRUST Online (EOL). The risk scores are updated in real time based on EBs project activity.
The key risk indicators which make up a project's risk score include, for example:
- Value of LCF expenditure;
- Creation of assets;
- Nature and type of project being delivered;
- Experience of EB delivering the project; and
- Number of extension requests.
The detailed specification is published on the right hand side of this page and the EB risk model specification is published on the Compliance process page of the website. As is our usual practice, we shall keep the project review approach under review and welcome any comments from EBs.
If you have any comments on the compliance approach or the Project Risk Model, please contact compliance@entrust.org.uk