Agenda item

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 on the updated Corporate Risk Register, indicating that since the last meeting the Corporate Risk Register had been reviewed and updated.

The Chief Internal Auditor presented the report indicating that no new risks had been added or escalated from the Service Risk Registers to the Corporate Risk Register in the current quarter, but some risk scores had been reassessed

No risks had been de-escalated from the Corporate Risk Register to the Service Risk Registers or deleted from the Corporate Risk Register.

The risks had been re-scored in accordance with the revised assessment guidance included in the Corporate Risk Management handbook which was approved by the Committee in December 2020 and that a revised Corporate Risk Management Handbook would be reviewed following the outcome of definition of the Council’s Risk Appetite in April 2022.

The Chief Internal Auditor indicated that as highlighted in December 2021, although there had been substantial work undertaken over the past six years to embed risk management across the Council, there was a gap in delivering key aspects of the Corporate Risk Management Handbook such as the regular updating of the Corporate Risk Register as well as the Service Risk Registers and the embedding position remained similar to the previous quarter.

The Chief Internal Auditor reminded the Committee that at the Audit and Governance Committee held on 15 December 2021, the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services had been requested to provide a presentation to this meeting on the risk relating to Financial Sustainability beyond 2022/23 (Housing Development Company) on the information and assurances provided to Cabinet in respect of the company and how Audit and Governance Committee could discharge its duty of risk assessing the Housing Development Company whilst respecting commercial confidentiality.

Accordingly, the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services briefed the Committee on the risk associated with Financial Sustainability relating to the Housing Development Company and the measures in place to mitigate those risks.

The Committee noted that during the last quarter only 50% of Service Area Risk Registers had been submitted on time. The Committee stressed the importance of Service Area Risk Registers being completed in a timely manner as part of the Council’s Risk Management Framework in order for them to fulfil their responsibilities.  

RESOLVED: That