WORCESTERSHIRE BIOLOGICAL RECORDS CENTRE
Lower Smite Farm, Smite Hill, Hindlip, Worcester, WR3 8SZ
A company limited by guarantee and registered in England No. 4416182 This company is a Registered Charity under registration No. 1096279
ANNUAL REPORT FROM THE BOARD 1[st] May 2020 to 30[th] April 2021
Objective of the Company
To provide a service which collects, manages and disseminates quality environmental information for the public benefit.
Public Benefit Statement
In addition to the public benefits arising from the availability of quality environmental information, such as assisting decision making which protects the environment, WBRC provides identification services to members of the public, and provides education on environmental issues through its support of the Worcestershire Recorders, their field events, the production of the joint journal, Worcestershire Record, and its website www.wbrc.org.uk. We aim to include records held by WBRC on the National Biodiversity Network Atlas of which WBRC is a member.
Review of Activities during the Year
WBRC has continued to supply information to all of the Service Level Agreement holders including, Environment Agency, Worcestershire County Council, Worcestershire Wildlife Consultancy and Worcestershire Wildlife Trust together with providing data to environmental consultants and local natural history groups, with species identification assistance to members of the public on an ongoing basis as single data requests.
With Covid pandemic striking from March 2020 WBRC staff worked from home, all necessary hardware was relocated and remote working continued with minimal technical disruption. Following the immediate downturn in commercial enquiries seen it was decided to take up the Government Job Retention scheme for the part-time Biological Recording Officer post for 2 months (June and July) while retaining the Manager post at full time. In addition a Government Grant was applied for via Wychavon District Council and £10,000 was awarded to help with losses incurred as a result of the restrictions caused by the pandemic.
Staffing was back to 1.5 FTE from August and commercial enquires returned to previous levels, income from SLA strams remained unaffected during this period and now WBRC can report a sound financial status to end the year, sufficiently robust to respond to the challenges set at this unprecedented time. Our key volunteers were able to assist remotely to keep the office systems working with only minimal adjustments to our regular working.
The database has continued to grow over the year even though there was a greatly reduced amount of biological recording which we can assume to be due to restrictions in personal movements, we now standing at 800,000 species records, giving access to over 1.5 million records in the county database including Worcestershire Flora.
Review of Financial Activity
The organisation finished the year with total assets of £ 71,084.42
GH Trevis
Chairman of the Board
| Worcestershire Biological Records Centre | Charity Number | 1096279 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Statement - 01.05.20 to 30.04.21 | Company Number | 4416182 | |
| Bank Balance Brought Forward | 62301.54 | ||
| Income: | |||
| Contributions | |||
| Worcs Wildlife Trust | 10500 | ||
| WNCT Enterprises | 2400 | ||
| Worcs County Council | 6470 | ||
| Environment Agency | 9651 | ||
| Covid HMRC JSR Grant | 1958.72 | ||
| Covid Grant via Wychavon DC | 10000 | ||
| Sales | 33575 | ||
| Bank Interest | 44.87 | ||
| Net Income | 74599.59 | ||
| Expenditure: | |||
| Employment Costs | 61030.48 | ||
| Phone & Broadband | 189.48 | ||
| Insurance | 684.04 | ||
| Expenses/Travel | 0 | ||
| Office/Equipment/IT | 1709.43 | ||
| Training/Conferences | 0 | ||
| Rent/Rates | 1000 | ||
| ALERC Membership | 475 | ||
| OS Licence | 728.28 | ||
| Expenditure | 65816.71 | ||
| Balance Carried Forward | 71084.42 |
CHARITY COMMISSION Independent examiner's report on the FOR ENGLAND AND WALES accounts
Section A
Independent Examiner's Report
Report to the trustees/ cet..aTae members of On accounts for the year Charity no -03 ended (if any) Set out on pages (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets) I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity ("the Trust") for the year ended % 09 Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ("the Act"). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent [The charity's gross income exceeded E250,OOO and I am qualified to examiner's statement undertake the examination by being a qualified member of [insert name of applicable listed body]]. Delete [ ] if not applicable.
-
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination (ether-than-that which gives me cause to believe that in, any material
-
respect: • the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
-
• the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or • the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fair' view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
- Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.
Signed:
Name:
Relevant professional qualification(s) or body
1
IER
Oct 2018
(if any):
Address:
'sec,
Section B
Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concem (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose.
2
IER
Oct 2018
00 orkn
wuÈ