Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Sheriff and Alderman Charles Bowman, Alderman Ian Luder, Deputy Roger Chadwick and Graeme Smith.

Mr Jamie Ingham Clark declared a general, non-pecuniary, interest in respect of agenda item 10: Deep Dive Risk Review, Corporate Risk 19, IT Service Provision as he has recently been elected as Chairman of the IT Sub Committee.

To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 18^th July 2016.

The minutes of the meeting held on 18^th July 2016 were approved.

Report of the Town Clerk.

he Committee received its outstanding actions update and noted the following updates:

• Members’ recent request for future risk reports to include a heat map and direction of travel had been included under item 8 on today’s agenda.

• In respect of ‘risk appetite’, the Risk Consultant, who had been working with the City of London Corporation in respect of the External Risk Management Review,  would provide an update by the end of September 2016.  Members noted that the report on the Review would be presented to the 8^th November meeting of the Audit and Risk Management Committee.

• The Commissioner of the City of London Police would be attending the next meeting on 8^th November 2016, when the HMIC report would be presented.   The Commissioner would also be attending in respect of the City of London Police’s recent Internal Audit report.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee received its work programme and noted the updates as set out in the above outstanding actions list.

Report of the Chamberlain.

he Committee received a report of the Chamberlain in respect of recent anti-fraud and investigation activity. The report also provided an analysis of the cases investigated since the start of the 2016/17 reporting year.  Members noted that, since the production of this agenda, a successful social housing tenancy fraud prosecution had resulted in an 18 months community order, with 60 hours unpaid work. This case had generated positive publicity about the success of the City of London’s enforcement procedures.  Members commended this report and the consistent good results achieved by the anti-fraud team.

RESOLVED, that – the report be noted.

Report of the Head of Internal Audit.

The Committee received a report on internal audit activity since the last Committee report, which had been presented at the June 2016 meeting. The report set out the overall opinion of the Head of Internal Audit in relation to the adequacy and effectiveness of the control environment. Members noted the opinion stated that the overall internal control environment was adequate and effective, although some areas required strengthening.

The Head of Internal Audit advised that the team had access to sufficient resources to cover the work outstanding to the end of the year, with no compromise on the quality of the audits.  The work plan was also further advanced than at the same time last year.  Members suggested that, in future reports, if a target number of audits had not been achieved, there should be a fuller explanation.  Members were pleased to note the 28 - 20 day reduction in turning around draft reports as this would also help with resourcing.

RESOLVED, that – the report be noted. 

Report of the Chamberlain.

The Committee received a report of the Chamberlain in respect of the corporate and top red departmental risk registers, following the review by the Chief Officer Risk Management Group (CORMG) on 21 June 2016 and Summit Group on 12 July 2016. 

Members noted that, further to their previous request in respect of the City of London Corporation’s ‘risk appetite’, the next risk update report would include guidance from the risk consultant who had been working with the City of London Corporation in respect of the External Risk Management Review.    The next report would also include a target risk score in the corporate assessment history report.

RESOLVED, that – the report be noted. 

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee received a ‘deep dive’ risk review report of the Town Clerk in respect of Corporate Risk CRO1 (Resilience: an event or situation related to terrorism or other serious event/major incident).  The report was presented by the Town Clerk, Assistant Town Clerk and the Resilience Manager.

During the discussion and questions the following points were noted:

• The role of the Police, as the likely initial Gold Command, was separate to that of the City of London Corporation.   Members noted that the role of the Town Clerk and his Resilience Team would largely come into effect after the initial response to an incident; i.e. during civilian recovery although it was recognised now that Local Authorities should be engaged from the outset.  However, Members also noted that, during a recent mock exercise, the Town Clerk had taken over the chair of the Gold Group within 24 hours.   The Town Clerk advised that the City of London Corporation enjoyed a very good working relationship with the City of London Police; the Protocols were well developed and available in the public domain. 

• The Town Clerk had a high profile role in resilience in London and was Chairman of the London Local Authority Panel and Deputy Chairman of the London Local Resilience Forum and on a callout rota as London Local Authority Gold.; the Assistant Town Clerk supported him in this role.   Members noted that this forum met  quarterly in order to agree and sign off the programmes and exercises.  The Town Clerk and the Resilience Team were building staff capacity and capability in order to develop generic response skills.  Members noted that this skills set should equip the Resilience Team to deal with 90% of all incidents, including the impact of a cyber-attack.

• The Chief Executive on call during a major incident would

Report of the Chamberlain.

The Committee received a ‘deep dive’ risk review report of the Chamberlain in respect of Corporate Risk CRO19 (IT Service Provision).  The report was presented by the Chamberlain and the Head of Information Technology and Acting Chief Information Officer.

Prior to the discussion of this item, Members agreed to exclude the public, should the discussion stray into the possible disclosure of exempt information.

It was therefore RESOLVED, that – under section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1, paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Schedule 12 A of the Local Government Act.

During the discussion and questions the following points were noted:

·       The report set out the headlines for a new drive and focus on risk and resilience to ensure that the organisation experienced fewer interruptions to service.  Members noted that the Information Technology Sub Committee would receive a more detailed report at its next meeting at the end of September 2016.

·       The Head of Information Technology set out his immediate priorities; i.e.  the upgrade of the network infrastructure and replacement of ageing equipment, particularly in the West Wing.  Members noted that, historically, there had been some under-investment in this area and therefore the new transformation programme would need to be holistic.  

·       The new vision for IT would be based on ‘buy – not build’, as this would help to build resilience and reduce dependence on single points of failure.

·       Immediate works included remote access, which was being mitigated and testing would be complete over the next couple of weeks in order to fully accommodate home working. 

In concluding, the Head of IT advised that he was confident that the measures now

There were no questions.

The Chairman has agreed to the admission of an item of urgent Business in respect of the City Fund and Pension Funds Financial Statements – 2015/16

Report of the Chamberlain

 1. City Fund and Pension Funds Financial Statements 2015/16 – report of the Chamberlain

The Committee considered a report of the Chamberlain in respect of the City Fund and Pension Funds Financial Statements for 2015/16, together with updated audit findings from BDO.  Following completion of the review of the financial statements by BDO, changes to the 31 March 2016 City Fund Balance Sheet between July and September 2016 were set out.

Members noted that the overall change was a net reduction of £0.5m, in relation to total net assets of nearly £1.6 billion and that a number of the adjustments related to leases.  The Chamberlain reminded Members that the officers have to prepare hundreds of complex lease entries, many of which had not been reviewed in time for the last meeting on 18^th July 2016.  The External Auditor confirmed that the financial statements were being updated for the adjustments and that he would be providing an unqualified opinion, with the financial statements being signed off next week.  In light of the adjustments, as set out in the report, the Chamberlain offered to provide an action plan to the next meeting of the Audit and Risk Management Committee, in order to reduce the need for such changes in future years.

In respect of the disclosure notes in the accounts, a post balance sheet event note on Brexit would not be included, given that it was still too early to assess any medium/long term impact, which is the basis on which the City’s asset allocation and wider investment strategy decisions were made.  Also, asset and liability values changed from day to day, due to any number of factors of which Brexit is only one.  Therefore, officers considered that the disclosure would require significant amounts of work for little value. 

Members noted