Apologies were received from Councillor MacCartney. Councillor Waller attended the meeting as the representative for Councillor MacCartney.

To confirm the minutes of the Audit and Risk Committee held on 26 April 2022 and to receive an update on actions agreed in the minutes of the previous meeting.

Consideration was given to the minutes held on 26^th April 2022.

As the Chair was the only Councillor from the previous meeting, he proposed the minutes be deferred to the next meeting when Councillor MacCartney was present.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 26 April 2022 be DEFERRED.

In accordance with the Regulations, Members are invited to declare any disclosable interests under the Code of Conduct and the nature of those interests in respect of items on this Agenda and/or indicate if Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive any petitions, deputations and questions received from Members of the Public in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rules 73 and 74.

No petitions, deputations and questions had been received.

To consider any questions received from Members of the Council in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule 75.

No questions with notice from Members had been received.

To consider any Notices of Motion from Members submitted under Procedure Rule 77.

No notices of motion had been received.

To appoint a Vice-Chair of the Committee for the 2022-23 municipal year.

Nominations were invited for the position of Vice Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee for the Municipal Year 2022-23.

Councillor W Cross proposed Councillor E Baines to be Vice-Chairman to the Audit and Risk Committee, there were no other nominations. This was seconded and upon being put to the vote, with three votes in favour and two abstentions, the motion was carried.

RESOLVED

a)    That Councillor E Baines be appointed Vice-Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee for the municipal year 2022-23

To receive Report No. 119/2022 from the Strategic Director for Resources and the Council’s External Auditors.

Paul Harvey of Grant Thornton, the Council’s External Auditors, presented their report to the Committee. He pointed out to Members that the Audit Plan was presented to the Committee in April and was approved.

It was anticipated the draft financial statements would be ready by the end of June. The ongoing Covid issues and the impact that has had, meant that the deadline was pushed back to the end of November for the Audit Findings Report and the Auditors report. If the auditors managed to complete their work before the end of November, then it would come to an earlier committee meeting.

The Section 151 Officer highlighted an issue with the draft financial statements report and that was around external valuations which were due on the Council’s assets. The Council were let down by the provider on that matter and Paul Harvey commented that this was a similar issue experienced elsewhere. He did confirm that the Council was still compliant with CIPFA code of practice.

Members agreed that if the reports were finalised sooner to come back to Committee at an earlier date.

RESOLVED

That Committee:

1. NOTED the external audit progress report.

To receive Report No. 115/2022 from the Strategic Director for Resources.

Report No.115/2022 was introduced by Saverio Della Rocca, Strategic Director for Resources. He explained that to meet the statutory requirement for the Council to was to approve an Annual Governance Statement for inclusion in its published Statement of Accounts (SoA) for 2021/22. In advance of formal approval by the end of 30 November 2022, the Committee was invited to consider an early draft for comment.

Members of the Committee made several small amendments which were related back to the Strategic Director for Resources to amend. The revised statement would come back to Committee later in the year with recommendations to approve.

RESOLVED

That Committee:

a)  CONSIDERED the draft Annual Governance Statement (AGS) fairly represented the governance framework in place at the Council and advised on whether there were any issues it would wish to see addressed or expanded upon in the final version.

To receive Report No. 116/2022 from the Chief Internal Auditor.

Rachel Ashley-Caunt, Chief Internal Auditor, presented Report No 116/2022 which provided Members with the Annual Internal Audit Report and Opinion for 2021/22, in line with the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards.

Members were informed that Satisfactory Assurance was given over the adequacy and effectiveness of the Council’s control environment for 2021/22. This control environment comprised of the system of internal control, governance arrangements and risk management.

It was also highlighted to Members that 100% of the Council’s Internal Audit Plan was delivered and Internal Audit had also performed well against the customer feedback ratings.

It was pointed out that in the summary of audit opinions and the levels of risk, recommendations for improvement would still be made even if the risk was to be good or substantial. Cyber security was a high risk for all organisations.

Members asked the question around the increase of home working, and the risks of cyber security that comes with that. The Chief Internal Auditor responded and informed Members that the audit had included coverage on officer and member training for cyber security. Recommendations were made around that area and plans were in place to do work on awareness and exercises to prevent certain risks from occurring.

RESOLVED

That Committee:

1. NOTED the Annual Internal Report and Opinion for 2021/22.

To receive Report No. 117/2022 from the Chief Internal Auditor.

Rachel Ashley-Caunt, Chief Internal Auditor, presented Report No 117/2022 which provided Members with a copy of the Audit Plan 2022/23 and updated them on the progress made in delivering the 2022/23 Annual Audit Plan.

All the audits that had been scheduled for Quarter One were now in advanced stages or progressing well. That included Corporate Parenting which was at the draft report stage at the time of the report being produced but she informed Members that it had now been finalised.

RESOLVED

That Committee:

1. NOTED the internal audit progress for 2022/23.

To receive items of urgent business which have previously been notified to the person presiding.

There were no items of urgent business.