To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for this meeting.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were none declared.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held 30 May 2023.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting held on 30 May 2023 were approved as a true and accurate record.

To note:

·       the publication of the draft accounts for 2022/23;

·       the update on the outstanding audits and audit plans for the financial years 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23; and

·       the update on the progress on the objections to the accounts for the financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22.

The Committee considered the report notifying members that RBWM’s draft 2022/23 accounts were published on 30 June 2023. The report also provided an update on the on-going audit for the financial year 2020/21; the audit plan for the un-audited accounts for the financial year 2021/22 and 2022/23 by the Council’s external auditors, and the progress of objections to the 2020/21 and 2021/22 accounts by the Council’s external auditors.

The Chair opened the item by commenting that members of the Committee would recall that at the previous meeting they had signed off 2019/20 and therefore the accounts are already almost three years out.

Raman Singla, Chief Accountant did not have any additional information to add to the report within the agenda pack.

Councillor Sharpe asked what the highlights were of those accounts and what were the concerns in relation to the accounts. The Chief Accountant replied that the 2022/23 accounts were based on the information that was available at the time and he did not have any concerns on them as they were produced following evidence-based practice as per the CIFPA code of practice requirements.

Councillor Sharpe sought clarification on the level of reserves that the Council has at the moment and what level of reserves were expected for a Council as a percentage of its total assets. His understanding was that it was recommended by central government that Councils should not keep a huge amount of reserves in their accounts as it was tax payers money. Andrew Vallance, Head of Finance answered that the Council currently had £10m in the General Reserve. The minimum level of reserves required, based on the statement provided by the Section 151 Officer in the Section 25 report in February’s budget report was around £8m. He considered that between £12-£15m would be the optimum level and anything above that would be regarded as excessive. He asked the Committee to note that it would be reported to Cabinet that as of month 2 there was currently an overspend of over £4m. The Council would not want to raid their reserves, but it would provide some comfort for services areas such as adults and children’s which had demand led pressures. He stated that it was important to keep those contingency sums in the budget. There were no government guidelines on the level of reserves but he understood that there were political statements made in relation to levels of reserves. Previously District Auditors had advised that 5% of the net revenue budget was a suitable level and this equated to 100m of revenue budget so the starting point would be £5m. He reiterated that within the Section 25 report they had considered risk as part of the budget papers and indicated that an absolute minimum was £8m. Ideally the Council would increase its reserves to between £12 and £15m.

Councillor Bond advised that as he was a member of the Pension Fund he had tried to read that section of the accounts. He had been surprised at how  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

To note the first progress report on the internal audit plan for 2023/24 as presented by the Council’s internal auditors, South West Audit Partnership (SWAP).

The Committee considered the progress report on the internal audit plan relating to the first quarter of 2023/24 presented by Lisa Fryer of the Council’s internal auditors, South West Audit Partnership (SWAP).

Lisa Fryer reminded the members present that the purpose of the report was to highlight areas for the Audit Committee and also for the Committee to assess SWAP’s progress of delivery against the internal audit plan that was agreed. She confirmed that some of the key points from the report were presented on the ‘at a glance’ page on page 176 of the agenda pack. She stated that at the last progress report for 22-23 audit year there were a couple of pieces of work outstanding so begins with an update of where they were with the last audit plan and they have only got one audit to complete which was at the draft stage. She was confident that they would be able to report back on that audit at the next meeting. There was also one audit that had been completed which was ‘Reasonable assurance’.

Lisa Fryer continued that they had started the 23/24 plan and had a lot of work in progress with 26 audits within the plan in progress which was reasonable for the point of time in the year. One draft had been completed and they had completed one grant certification, but they did not have a lot to advise the Committee in terms of completed work at this stage. She clarified that there had been some plan changes during the quarter already, she reflected that this was a positive sign that the plan was being kept updated and changing in response to address emerging key areas and prioritise where they could add most value. 

Lisa Fryer explained that SWAP have a risk-based approach they had mapped strategic risks against the audit plan and it could be seen they had already started to deliver work against the key risks as set out on page 179. These were shown in yellow and they had mapped the strategic risk to the plan so it was shown that they were planning to do work across the majority of strategic risks over the year.

Lisa Fryer explained that she had kept in appendices B and C even though there was not anything to actually report this quarter. She thought it might be of interest to new members to see what to expect in later progress reports where more detail would be provided on Limited Assurance reports that were issued and also more detail provided on the follow-up activity to give the Committee assurance that previously agreed management actions had been implemented. She stated that page 184 of the report showed the full list of audits that had been agreed in March 2023 to be delivered. This list detailed the full list of planned work for the year, indicating when the work was due to start and began with the 22-23 Audits. She explained that all completed reports were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

To consider the report setting out how adequate risk management is in place for RBWM as a fundamental element of its governance arrangements and approve the ‘Approach to Management of Risk 1 April 2023 – 31 March 2024’.

Steve Mappley, Insurance and Risk Manager presented the report setting out how adequate risk management was in place for RBWM as a fundamental element of its governance arrangements and consider the ‘Approach to Management of Risk 1 April 2023 – 31 March 2024’.

He explained that, as set out in paragraph 2.5 of the report, the Strategic Risks were refreshed by the previous Chief Executive Tony Reeves with the Senior Management Team to ensure that they remained current. He stated that the first appendix set out the approach to management of risk and that following the previous year's risk management audit some significant changes had been made such as identifying the difference between strategic and operational risks. The report focused on strategic risks. Previously the operational risks were also included in reports to the Committee however this led to a lengthy report without the key officers who owned those risks attending to be able to answer queries on the detail raised. Part four of the report explains risk review strategies, other risk responses such as risk transfer or termination but noted these options were quite difficult as the Council could not just decide to stop doing an activity, but it was still a valid possibility. He continued that they had also added further information on how the techniques were applied e.g. ISO 31000 and expected controls for emerging risks were now an explicit part of the strategy. The section of the report also explained about risk thresholds for services to help them step up or down as a process. He explained that the Heat Map at Appendix C was a very high-level description of what the risks were, noting that in addition to finance, safeguarding and infrastructure the following had been added fraud, cost of living crisis, mental health and climate change. Appendix D was a longer version which included the controls that were in place, actions being taken and interesting metrics regarding where exposure to risk were. He explained that this then intersects with the activities undertaken by SWAP who checked whether this was accurate. He noted that when everything that can be done is done the Council gets to a ‘control position’. He elaborated that even in a controlled position there may be a certain amount of inherent risk that the Council needed to accept. He explained that the risk appetite of the organisation which was detailed in the Council’s approach to risk and gave a direction of travel as to what level risk the Council was comfortable with once impacts were assessed. He noted that without endless resources available that the Council could be dedicated to managing each risk to the lowest possible level of the lowest tolerable level. He concluded that the identified risk of a change of political control potentially affecting the strategic direction of the Council was no longer a strategic risk on the register.

Councillor Wilson considered it looked like a very robust process in terms of identifying risk. He had noticed that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

To note the report and:

·       consider the draft 2022/23 Annual Governance Statement, identifying any specific matters which should be brought to the attention of Council or Cabinet;

·       recommend the 2022/23 Annual Governance Statement to the Leader of the Council, Chair of the Audit & Governance Committee and Chief Executive for signature and publication with the Council’s Statement of Accounts; and

·       request update reports be provided to the Committee summarising progress on the AGS Action Plan

Elaine Browne, Assistant Director: Law and Governance introduced the report presenting the draft 2022/23 Annual Governance Statement (AGS), including the AGS Action Plan for the forthcoming year. She explained that it was set out in two sections capturing the governance arrangements that had been in place the preceding year and identifying actions to be undertaken to support the Council to carry out its functions effectively and lawfully. The AGS was considered to be a ‘live document’ with the Statutory Officers Group meeting regularly to discuss progress against the action plan and this would be reported to the Committee. 

The Chair confirmed that the Committee was being asked to propose additions to the action plan and these would be added and monitored through the plan set out at page 270.

Councillor Bond sought clarification who the Independent Person role was and it was explained that they were recruited to deal with Code of Conduct complaints and the pool had been expanded with an additional person to build resilience and robustness in the process.  

Councillor Wilson suggested building upon what was set out at page 260 about service delivery communications to improve sharing of information when issues occurred to enable them to be proactive.

At the conclusion of their discussions the Committee had agreed that:

·       an action to review the Whistleblowing Policy should be added to the AGS action plan as it was last updated in March 2019; and

·       an action should be added to implement robust and transparent communications for dealing with and advising councillors of service delivery issues.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY that

i)               the report be noted;

ii)             subject to the additions to the action plan set out above, the 2022/23 AGS be recommended to the Leader of the Council, Chair of the Audit & Governance Committee and Chief Executive for signature and publication with the Council’s Statement of Accounts; and

iii)            further update reports should be provided to the Committee summarising progress on the AGS Action Plan.

To consider the Committee’s work programme for the municipal year.

The Committee considered the updated work programme and agreed the following amendments:

·       Treasury Management Outturn to be added to the plan for consideration at the September meeting;

·       2020/21 Statement of Accounts to be removed form the list of items to be scheduled as these were anticipated at the September meeting; and

·       2022/23 Statement of Accounts to be added to the list of items to be programmed.

The Chair confirmed that members of the Committee could raise items at future meetings or between scheduled meetings for consideration.