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Local Government Act 2002

Planning, decision-making, and accountability - Reporting

98: Annual report

You could also call this:

"A local authority's yearly report card, showing what they did and how well they did it."

Illustration for Local Government Act 2002

You need to know what a local authority does each year. They must write a report about it. This report is called an annual report and it must have the information required by Part 3 of Schedule 10. The local authority must prepare and adopt this report each year.

The annual report helps you see how well the local authority did what they planned to do. It also helps the local authority tell the community about the decisions they made. You can think of it like a report card for the local authority.

The local authority must finish and adopt the annual report within 4 months after the end of the financial year. Then they must make the report and a summary of it available to the public within 1 month. The summary must be a fair and consistent representation of the information in the report.

If the local authority provides water services under the Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025, there are some extra rules they must follow, which are in section 245 of that Act.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM172354.

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Part 6Planning, decision-making, and accountability
Reporting

98Annual report

  1. A local authority must prepare and adopt in respect of each financial year an annual report containing in respect of that year the information required by Part 3 of Schedule 10.

  2. The purposes of an annual report are—

  3. to compare the actual activities and the actual performance of the local authority in the year with the intended activities and the intended level of performance as set out in respect of the year in the long-term plan and the annual plan; and
    1. to promote the local authority's accountability to the community for the decisions made throughout the year by the local authority.

      1. Each annual report must be completed and adopted, by resolution, within 4 months after the end of the financial year to which it relates.

      2. A local authority must, within 1 month after the adoption of its annual report, make publicly available—

      3. its annual report; and
        1. a summary of the information contained in its annual report.

          1. The summary must represent, fairly and consistently, the information regarding the major matters dealt with in the annual report.

          2. A local authority must, within 1 month after the adoption of its annual report, make the report and the summary prepared under subsection (4)(b) publicly available.

          3. However, if a local authority is a water service provider under the Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025, this section is subject to section 245 of that Act.

          4. Repealed

          5. Repealed
          Compare
          Notes
          • Section 98(2)(a): amended, on , by section 49 of the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Act 2010 (2010 No 124).
          • Section 98(6): replaced, on , by section 20 of the Local Government Regulatory Systems Amendment Act 2019 (2019 No 6).
          • Section 98(7) heading: repealed, on the , by section 98(8).
          • Section 98(7): inserted, on , by section 172 of the Local Government (Water Services) (Repeals and Amendments) Act 2025 (2025 No 43).
          • Section 98(7): repealed, on the , by section 98(8).
          • Section 98(8): repealed, on the , by section 98(8).