Apologies were received from Councillor L Stephenson. Councillor M Chatfield attended the meeting as the representative for Councillor A West.

To confirm the minutes of the Audit and Risk Committee held on 26^th September and 31^st October 2023 and to receive an update on actions agreed in the minutes of the previous meeting.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meetings held on 26 September and 31^st October 2023.

It was moved by Councillor K Payne and seconded that the minutes of the 26^th  September and 31^st October 2023 meetings be approved.

RESOLVED

a)    That the minutes of the meetings held on 26 September and 31^st October 2023 be APPROVED.

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 93 and 94.

The total time allowed for this item shall be 30 minutes. Petitions, declarations and questions shall be dealt with in the order in which they are received. Questions may also be submitted at short notice by giving a written copy to the Committee Administrator 15 minutes before the start of the meeting.

The total time allowed for questions at short notice is 15 minutes of the total time of 30 minutes. Any petitions, deputations and questions that have been submitted with prior formal notice will take precedence over questions submitted at short notice. Any questions that are not considered within the time limit shall receive a written response after the meeting and be the subject of a report to the next meeting.

No petitions deputations or questions had been received.

To consider any questions received from Members of the Council in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule 95.

No questions with notice from Members had been received.

To consider any Notices of Motion from Members submitted under Procedure Rule 97.

No notices of motion had been received.

To receive Report No.174/2023 from the Chief Internal Auditor.

Report No.174/2023 was introduced by Rachel Ashley Caunt, Chief Internal Auditor.

Since the last Audit and Risk Committee meeting, 22 audit actions had been closed as implemented.  At the date of reporting, there were 18 audit actions which remained overdue for implementation – two of the overdue actions were of a ‘high priority’ rating and over three months overdue.

Finalised Audit reports had been issued in relation to the following audits from the 2023/24 Audit Plan: Commissioning of Leisure Services; and verification of Disabled Facilities Grant and Bus Subsidy Grants for 2022/23.  None of the audit reviews had resulted in assurance opinions of less than Moderate Assurance and none have been assessed a ‘High’ organisational risk.

Members were informed that Property Services had moved directorates to be under Strategic Director for Resources. It was agreed by officers for a more comprehensive update to the next meeting around the outstanding actions.

Action: Kirsty Nutton

Members were updated on the outstanding actions recommendation raised at the September meeting. Cabinet now looked at the implementation of Audit Actions on a quarterly basis through the Joint Leadership Team meetings and a further update on this issue to come to the next meeting.

Action: Kirsty Nutton and Cllr A Johnson

RESOLVD

That Committee:

NOTED the Internal Audit update report (Appendix A).

To receive Report No.175/2023 from the Chief Internal Auditor.

Report No.175/2023 was introduced by Rachel Ashley Caunt, Chief Internal Auditor.

The Committee was informed on the process to be followed in developing the Internal Audit Plan for 2024/25 and invited the Committee to highlight any areas where assurance was required from the Internal Audit team during the next financial year.

Members asked for highways to be an area of consideration with there being a new contractor from 1^st April 2024. The current Internal Audit Plan was undertaking work around the procurement of the new highways contract, this would follow through to see how that contract was being applied in practice. This would be put towards the end of the next financial year to make sure there was enough to audit.

Levelling Up was another area for consideration Members wanted to be looked at. Currently, joint work with Melton was being carried out around the governance review, next year would be more focussed on Rutland specific areas and the delivery of those projects.

The Chair asked for an an additional area to be considered and that was the Local Lead Flood Authority needed to be added onto the Audit Plan. Climate Change had impacted local areas recently with recent storms and floods. The council hadn’t dealt with the recent issues effectively under their statutory duties. 

RESOLVED

That Committee:

a)    NOTED the process to be followed to develop the risk based Audit Plan for 2024/25.

HIGHLIGHTED areas for consideration for the 2024/25 for the Audit Plan to the Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee and the Chief Internal Auditor by 31^st January 2024.

To receive a verbal update from the Head of Finance.

Andrew Merry, Head of Finance verbally updated the Committee on the Statement of Accounts for 2021/22 and 2022/23.

Due to recent capacity issues within the Finance Department, the 2021/22 accounts had not been finalised and signed. Head of Finance hoped for the issues to be resolved by the beginning of 2024 for then to be signed.

For the 2022/23 Statement of Accounts, the Council had responded to 105 audit requests and 56 requests currently with the finance team. He informed Members that budget setting at this time of the year was priority over responding to audit requests, but the finance team had been out to recruitment and would hopefully be back to full capacity within in the new year to increase workflow.

To receive Report No.176/2023 from the Strategic Director for Resources.

Report No.175/2023 was introduced by Kirsty Nutton, Strategic Director for Resources.

The Committee undertook further training in September 2023 through attendance at a training session run by Zurich Resilience Solutions.  Members were briefed on the management of risk in Council activities and considered what information is required to evaluate and ensure effective risk management is adopted.

In September 2023 the Council approved a new Reserves Strategy and Policy.  As part of this Strategy an assessment was undertaken as to the possible risk exposure for the Council alongside the likelihood of occurrence.  The assessment by the S151 had enabled the Council to identify balances to mitigate risk and provide investment opportunities for future savings proposals and / or enhanced service.

The Chair asked for some further clarification on Risk ID: 76 where the actions didn’t relate to financial statements so asked for them to be made clearer and for some controls to be added around the retention issues in Risk ID: 73. Officers agreed and reassured the Chair that those points would be actioned.

The Committee congratulated everyone involved with the most recent OFSTED inspection in July and the positive outcome which came from it.

RESOLVED

That Committee:

CONSIDERED the content of the updated Strategic Risk Register (Appendix A) and the actions underway to address the risks.

To receive a verbal update from the Strategic Director for Resources.

Kirsty Nutton, Strategic Director for Resources verbally confirmed to the Committee that there had been no use of the provisions of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act since the last update.

To discuss future training opportunities for Committee Members.

Rachel Ashley-Caunt, Chief Internal Auditor gave Members a brief introduction to a self-assessment process for the Committee to see how the Committee performed. Would benefit the Committee to see what areas that potentially could be improved. The self-assessment was a good starting point to develop a training plan for the Committee, the training plan would then feed into an annual report to Council.

It was agreed that a meeting would be set up through Democratic Services in January for the self-assessment to begin and then bring something to the next Committee in March to then take to Council in the new financial year.

Action: David Ebbage

Members felt it was a valuable opportunity and for preferred a group meeting to be arranged with all Members rather than individually.

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

There were no items of urgent business.

Tuesday, 5^th March 2024.

Tuesday, 5^th March 2024.