To consider the report.

Lisa Fryer, SWAP, explained that the purpose of the plan was to allow Committee Members to have oversight of the internal audit plan and for SWAP to draw attention to areas where internal controls were in need of improvement. SWAP was on track to deliver the plan, a third of audits were at the reporting stage, while 26% of the plan was in progress. A key focus had been on grant audits to meet certification deadlines and a further three grant reviews had been completed since the last progress report was considered by the Committee. On assurance, three audits had been finalised, two of which were limited assurance. A summary of all audits which were a low level of assurance had been outlined, two audits on this progress report were deemed low assurance. One was on the risk management framework, strategic risks had not been refreshed for some time and the new RBWM Corporate Plan provided a good opportunity for this to happen. An audit had also been completed on fleet safety compliance checks, services were now individually managed and the council did not have a central record of all vehicles owned and leased. The climate change review had focused on the governance arrangements and received a reasonable opinion, it was an important area for the council.

Councillor Bond focused on the climate governance audit, the climate was a big issue. The National Audit Office had created a document that advised that the Committee should ask questions about the climate governance audit, Councillor Bond suggested that the audit could be made available for the Committee to review. He asked if he could view the audit by submitting a Freedom of Information request. Councillor Bond said that any completed audits could be listed under the ‘background documents’ section of the report, for the Committee Members to view should they wish. Councillor Bond concluded by suggesting that the climate governance audit should be added to the work programme. Councillor Bond had three questions on the audit:

·         What were the strengths and weaknesses that the audit identified?

·         Manchester’s Section 151 officer was also leading on climate change, this linked with policy and resources in a realistic way. He asked if the audit shed any light on this method of governance?

·         SWAP had completed climate audits at other local authorities, but these all had different titles. Councillor Bond asked why this was the case?

Adele Taylor said that audits that had been completed could be viewed by the Committee, she would work out the best way to do this so that Members could easily access them as they were completed. The Manchester S151 officer was leading on climate at a corporate level which was the reason for this method of governance, RBWM worked under a matrix management system. The audit on climate governance was undertaken to ensure that the council was part of the right and effective partnerships.

ACTION – Adele Taylor to explore the best of sharing completed audits with Members of the Committee.

Lisa Fryer added that SWAP needed to draw attention to areas of concern, reports were focused on areas with lower levels of assurance. Climate change was likely to feature on audit plans in the future, the service area were keen to get a view on the new governance arrangements.

The Vice Chairman asked how other councils were approaching climate change and if it differed to the approach of RBWM.

Lisa Fryer said that climate emergencies had been declared at many other authorities, it was a common feature of audit plans.

Councillor Knowles commented on the risk management weakness, he noted that the Head of Finance had flagged this area as something for internal audit to focus on. Councillor Knowles asked if there was any specific concern with risk management.

Andrew Vallance said that as part of the CIPFA report, it was a priority. A couple of years after the report was the right time for risk management to be reviewed.

Adele Taylor said that it was important that risk management also linked well with the Corporate Plan. It was expected that there could be more audits coming through with limited or lower assurance levels because officers were picking areas to audit which they felt could have issues and wanted to ensure that improvements continued.

The Vice Chairman felt that the council was making good progress and was moving in the right direction.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Audit and Governance Committee noted the report.