## **HPRG Accounts Financial Year 2023 – 2024** 

This accounting year has seen an increased income from attendance fee with sponsorship some £1,800 greater than FY 2022-2023.  The increase in attendance reflects the timeliness of the theme of the meeting and its relevance to the current efforts in polymer science and technology. 

There has been a considerable  increase on last year’s reserves.  Last year I commented that the Committee may wish to consider means by which this reserve can be reduced somewhat to the benefit of the Group.  I have been informed by the secretary that the Committee has decided to offer 10 fully funded places at future annual conferences to early career scientists and engineers.  This is to be commended.  Nonetheless, an excess of around £12,500 each year means that the reserves will continues to increase, albeit at a slower rate.  The Committee may wish to consider other ways of managing the reserves. 

Annual expenditure was circa £77,000 and I suggest a reserve of about £140,000, i.e. approximately double the expenses in running one meeting, would be sensible. 

Lastly, I draw attention to the remarkable fact that the charges the hotel make has been remarkably stable. In 2013 the hotel charged ££62,000.  Leaving aside the pandemic years, more recent years pre and post pandemic costs have been £69,000 +/- about £3,000.  Given inflationary pressure and the increase in energy prices, at some point I would expect hotel charges to increase.  However, I understand that a new 3 year contract has been agreed without a large increase in charges, 

Randal W Richards 17[th] October 2024 



|**Income**||||||**Expenditure**|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**2022-23**||||**2023-24**||**2022-23**||||**2023-24**|
|||General||||||General|||
|||£||£||£||||£|
|63,208.68||Fees||74,405.60|Note 1|-57477.55||Hotel||-69498.95|
|1,493.78||Interest||2,557.20||-1765.50||Wine||-1874.67|
|11,167.27||Sponsorship||12,993.00||-1440.00||Website||-1672.92|
|2.37||Miscellaneous||||0.00||Tie Cleaning||-432|
|||||||-26.60||Bank charges||-26.25|
|||||||0.00||Stationery,<br>photocopying, postage||-75.75|
|||||||-130.50||Secretarial||-943.41|
|||||||-250.00||AuditingFees||-275|
|||||||-1200.00||Refunds||-2260|
|75,872.10||||89,955.80||-62740.15||Total General<br>Expenses||-77058.95|
||||||||||||
||||||||||||
|75,872.10||Total General<br>Income||89,955.80|||~~**Money at Bank**~~<br>**at 31st August**<br>**2023**|||~~**Money at Bank**~~<br>**at 31st August**<br>**2024**|
|-62,740.15||Less General<br>Expenditure||-77,058.95|||5000|RBS Current||5903.33|
|13,131.95||Excess/loss<br>income over<br>expenditure||12,896.85|||156251.68|RBS Deposit||168245.2|
|148,119.73||OpeningBalance||161,251.68|||0|PayPal||0|
|161,251.68||funds||**174,148.53**|||**161251.68**|Total||**174148.53**|
||||||||||||
|Notes|1|Includes net fees v|ia PayPa|l after Paypal tr|ansaction|costs remov|ed byPayPal;i.e. d|oes notpass through HP|RG acc|ounts|
||2|Old ties were offer|ed to atte|ndees after clea|ning||||||
||3|Includes expenses|from 20|22-2023paid in|2023-20|24 FY|||||
||4|Fee for audit of 202|2-2023|FY|||||||






## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts** 

**Section A                        Independent Examiner’s Report** 

> **Report to the trustees/** High Polymer research Group **members of On accounts for the year** 31/8/2024 **Charity no** 206902 **ended (if any) Set out on pages** Attached (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 31/8/2024. 

- **Responsibilities and** As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation **basis of report** of the 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 the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. 

## **Independent examiner's statement** 

I have completed my examination.  I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: 

- accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or 

- the accounts do not accord with the accounting records 

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. 

_._ 

**Date:** 17/10/2024 

**Signed: Name:** Randal.W.Richards OBE; DSc ; PhD ; FRSC; CChem **Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Address:** 

1 

**October 2018** 

**IER**