Agenda and minutes

The Democratic Services Officer notified the Committee that due to unforeseen circumstances she had received apologies for absence from both the Chair and Vice Chair and therefore asked Members to nominate a Chair.

RESOLVED:

That Councillor John Joseph Kelly be appointed as Chair for this meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee.

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting, in particular Ms Rachel Oakes who had been appointed as an independent Member of the Committee.

The Chair informed the Committee that this would be the last meeting attended by Ruth Appleby (Democratic Services Officer) as she was due to retire from the Council in September 2023.

The Chair also advised the Committee of a change of Agenda order – namely that the ‘Statement of Accounts’ report – Agenda Item 10, which had been published as a Supplementary Agenda, would be considered after Agenda Item 5 ‘Corporate Risk Management’.

RESOLVED:  That

The Committee’s thanks be extended to Ruth Appleby for her hard work and support for Audit and Governance Committee members during her time as Clerk to the Committee.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Robinson (Chair), Roche (Vice-Chair), Bradshaw (Substitute Member) and Murphy (Substitute Member).

Members are requested at a meeting where a disclosable pecuniary interest or personal interest arises, which is not already included in their Register of Members' Interests, todeclare any interests that relate to an item on the agenda.

Where a Member discloses a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest, he/she must withdraw from the meeting room, including from the public gallery, during the whole consideration of any item of business in which he/she has an interest, except where he/she is permitted to remain as a result of a grant of a dispensation.

Where a Member discloses a personal interest he/she must seek advice from the Monitoring Officer or staff member representing the Monitoring Officer to determine whether the Member should withdraw from the meeting room, including from the public gallery, during the whole consideration of any item of business in which he/she has an interest or whether the Member can remain in the meeting or remain in the meeting and vote on the relevant decision.

No declarations of any disclosable pecuniary interests or personal interests were received.

Minutes of the meeting held on 15 March 2023

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 15 March 2023 be confirmed as a correct record.

Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services.

A presentation will be provided by the Assets and Property Manager on the Corporate Risk – ‘Condition of Assets’.

The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services which provided an update on the Corporate Risk Register as detailed in Appendix A to the report.

The Chief Internal Auditor (CIA) presented the report indicating that the ownership of the content of the Corporate Risk Register lay with the Strategic Leadership Board.

The CIA indicated that since the last meeting held on 15 March 2023 the following changes had been made to the Corporate Risk Register, namely:

·       The addition of three new risks, namely, Condition of Assets, Failure to comply with sections 1 and 10 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Requirement to work collaboratively with Sefton New Directions to review delivery model, in order to meet market requirements and promote financial sustainability; identify opportunities and future risk mitigation.

·       No risks had been de-escalated to the relevant Service Risk Register this quarter

The CIA informed the Committee of work undertaken on updating the Corporate Risk Management Handbook (Appendix B) to reflect recommendations from Risk Management Audit as well as the implementation of the Risk Appetite Framework approved by the Audit and Governance Committee on 15 March 2023.

The CIA also indicated that the Risk Management audit undertaken by Internal Audit provided an Internal Audit Opinion of ‘Moderate’ risk to the control environment. Also, other on-going initiatives to embed risk management within the Council, including Assurance Mapping and implementing the three lines model. 

The report identified three medium and two low priority recommendations for improvements to systems and processes, namely:

·       Clearly define the role of the Risk and Resilience Team and update the Risk Management Handbook.

·       Develop a checklist to assess each risk register against.

·       Ensure that the Risk Appetite Framework is included in the Risk Management Handbook.

·       Progress the risk management training with the Corporate Learning and Development Team and review how risk management information is shared across the Council.

·       Review whether managers received adequate notice of deadlines to return updated risk registers.

Following consideration of the report, the Committee received a presentation by the Service Manager – Property and Building Services on the condition of Sefton Council Assets.

Members of the Committee asked questions / commented on the following issues arising from the report and presentation:

·       Whether staff were provided training on completion of risk registers.

o   The CIA indicated that relevant risk register e-learning training course was being developed and would be rolled out for staff in due course.

·       The risk associated with non-completion of Freedom of Information (FOI) within the statutory timeframe of 20 working days.

o   The Chief Legal and Democratic Officer indicated that this issue was being addressed by the Information Management Executive group and was reported to Assistant Directors on a monthly basis

·       Disposal of Assets – Did the Council give any consideration to the advantages and disadvantages of disposing of assets prior to allocating them for disposal?

o   The Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services indicated that the asset maximisation programme which  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services

The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services which provided an update on the progress of the audit of the Statement of Accounts for 2020/21 and 2021/22 as well as the production of the Statement of Accounts for 2022/23.

The Committee queried the regulations regarding external auditors and the impact on future audit timescales. The Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services indicated there was a national issue with Local Authority external audit timescales and explained the complexity of the process.

RESOLVED: That

Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services

The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services which outlined the Financial Management Code issued by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy which aims to ensure a high standard of financial management in local authorities. An annual assessment of the Council’s compliance with the code is required and is accompanied by an action plan for improvement.

The report provided an update on progress in implementing the action plan for further improvements and to identify additional actions to further improve compliance, many areas of good practice in financial management were highlighted within the compliance assessment.

The Service Manager – Finance and the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services explained the management of the Council’s balances and reserve strategy following a relevant query.

RESOLVED: That

Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services

The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services which provided Members with a review of the Treasury Management activities undertaken during 2022/23 and an update to 30 June 2023.

The Committee received this outturn report to allow monitoring against the Treasury Management Policy and Strategy and Prudential Indicators approved by Cabinet and Council in March 2022.

The Committee queried what some of the financial figures in the report represented. The Service Manager – Finance indicated the differences between and meaning of the relevant figures e.g. capital grants, internal/external borrowing, balances and reserves.

RESOLVED:  That

Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services

The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services which detailed the performance and key activities of the Risk and Audit Service for the period 1 March 2023 to 30 June 2023.

The Chief Internal Auditor (CIA) presented the report which provided an update on the resourcing position across the Team, in particular the Internal  Audit Team and the actions planned for the rest of the financial year.

RESOLVED:  That

Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services

The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services which provided an update on reports listed in the Audit and Governance Work Programme for submission to the meeting held on 15 March 2023 and the reasons for non-submission of some of the reports listed.

The report indicated that the 2022-2023 Work Programme had been approved by Audit and Governance Committee on 16 March 2022 and had been developed to help ensure that all of the responsibilities of the Committee set out in the Audit and Governance Committee’s Terms of Reference were discharged during the municipal year.

The report also indicated that the Audit and Governance Committee Work Programme for the current Municipal Year - 2023/24 had been approved at the last meeting held on 15 March 2023.

RESOLVED:

That the update on reports listed in the Audit and Governance Committee Work Programme 2022/23  for submission to the meeting on 15 March 2023 and ad hoc reports considered at that meeting be noted.