Local government investments
The investment of money is part of a local authority’s treasury management activities. We regulate this investment.
The Local Government Investments (Scotland) Regulations 2010 set out that local authorities are permitted to make investments subject to them gaining consent from Scottish Ministers.
The consent of Scottish Ministers is set out in Finance circular 5/2010. The conditions attached to the consent include:
- a requirement for an annual Investment Strategy to be prepared before the financial year start, and for an annual Investment Report to be prepared after the financial year end
- that both the Strategy and Report must be approved by the authority i.e. full council
- that both the Strategy and Report is to be available to the public – ideally from their website
- the requirement for a local authority to set out what investments it will permit, known as permitted investments
- the requirement that risks associated with each permitted investment is to be identified and an explanation as to how the authority will manage those risks