Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Rooms, 2nd Floor, West Wing, Guildhall

Contact: Julie Mayer
tel. no.: 020 7332 1410  Email: julie.mayer@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Alderman Nick Anstee, Chris Boden, Marianne Fredericks, Paul Martinelli and Andrien Meyers.

 

The Chairman welcomed John Petrie to his first meeting of the Committee.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.

2.

Members' Declarations under the Code of Conduct in respect of items on the Agenda

Minutes:

There were no items.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

3.

Minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 126 KB

To agree the public minutes of the meeting held on 29 May 2018.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 3.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 29 May 2018 were approved.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Outstanding Actions of the Committee pdf icon PDF 68 KB

Report of the Town Clerk.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 4.

Minutes:

Members received the Committee’s Outstanding Actions list, noting those items which would be discharged on this agenda and that new items might be added as the meeting progressed.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Committee Work Programme pdf icon PDF 63 KB

Report of the Town Clerk.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 5.

Minutes:

Members noted the Committee’s Work Programme and agreed to move the Deep Dive Risk Review  in respect of  ‘Loss of Business Support to the City’ from January 2019 to the next meeting on 25th September 2018, possibly rescheduling the Deep Dive on Road Safety to a later meeting.

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) City of London Local Area Inspection outcome - May 2018 pdf icon PDF 76 KB

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 6.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members received a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services in respect of the recent SEND Ofsted Inspection.  Members were very pleased to note a letter from the Secretary of State congratulating the City Corporation on the strengths identified in the Inspection.  The Officer advised that significant progress had already been made in respect of the small number of areas recommended for further development.  The Chairman and Members welcomed this good news story and asked for their congratulations to be passed on to officers in the Department of Community and Children’s Services.

 

RESOLVED, that – the report be noted.

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Deep Dive Risk Reviews

Reports of the Town Clerk.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 7.

Minutes:

a)    CR01 – Resilience

Members received a report of the Town Clerk in respect of the City of London Corporation’s preparedness for events or situations related to terrorism or other major incidents. 

 

In respect of the fire at Wanstead Flats the previous weekend, Members noted that the City Corporation had overseen an exercise there 18 months ago and found the officers to be well prepared.  Engagement with the surrounding local authorities had been part of this exercise.   Officers recognised that some of the surrounding Councils were not London Boroughs and this had been taken into consideration.

 

Members suggested that it might be timely to consider interim measures such as preventing smoking in open spaces during the dry conditions.

 

As part of the post-mortem, the Assistant Town Clerk would be investigating the strength of immediate communications.  Whilst there is not a 24-hour City Corporation Press Office, 24-hour Resilience Officers are on call.  Members noted a new protocol with the Communications Team, which will enable the Resilience Team to issue an immediate response, pending a full news story.  This was particularly welcomed by Members who work closely with community groups. 

 

There was some discussion about BCP in terms of both physical and IT resilience and a recognition that IT resilience was improving.  The Assistant Town Clerk agreed to review the impact score, given the strong mitigations in place and to include a  narrative explaining both aspects of BCP. 

 

Members noted that there were generic response plans to cope with all manner of  disruptions, from terrorism to fire, based on national models for decision making.  Members noted that the exercise programme would be ramped up locally, with newly trained strategic leads in place. 

 

The Assistant Town Clerk agreed to discuss the possibility of a live BCP test with IT colleagues and to consider

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

CRO1 - Resillience pdf icon PDF 93 KB

Please note that the appendix to this report also applies to item 7(b) on the agenda.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 8.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

9.

CR24 - Operational Security pdf icon PDF 118 KB

Minutes:

10.

Risk Management Update pdf icon PDF 115 KB

Report of the Chamberlain.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 10.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members considered a report of the Chamberlain which provided an update on the corporate and top red departmental risk registers, following their review by the Chief Officers Risk Management and Summit Groups. 

 

Members noted that the IT Sub Committee had considered the downgrading of  GDPR to a departmental risk but, in light of a couple of recent breaches, had not reached a unanimous decision.  Members noted that Mazar’s had been reviewing this risk and their report and conclusions would inform a decision. 

 

Members also suggested that it would be helpful if future reports could show trends/impact/likelihood and control.

 

RESOLVED, that :

 

1.         The report be noted.

 

2.         Corporate Risk CR25 – GDPR, remain as a Corporate Risk, for the time being, subject to a review at the next meeting of the Audit and Risk Management Committee.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

11.

City Fund and Pension Fund Financial Statements pdf icon PDF 102 KB

Report of the Chamberlain and the External Auditor.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 11.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members received a report of the Chamberlain and supporting reports of the External Auditors (BDO) in respect of the City Fund and Pension Fund Financial Statements for 2017-18.  Members noted that the reports had been marked ‘to follow’, circulated by email and added to the City of London Corporation’s web page for both the Finance and Audit and Risk Management Committees. 

 

The Chamberlain reminded Members of the two briefing sessions on the Financial Statements, which had taken place on 9th and 16th July.  The sessions had been well attended by Members of the Court, in addition to the Finance and Audit and Risk Management Committees.  The notes taken at these sessions had been circulated to Members and the Chamberlain had produced an executive summary covering the headlines.

 

Members noted that the sessions had  raised a couple of queries which would stray into exemption categories 1 & 2 (information relating to an individual/likely to reveal the identity of an individual) under the Local Government Act 1972 and they would therefore be answered in the non-public session of this meeting under ‘items of urgent business’. 

Please see item 16 - below **

 

The Chamberlain introduced the session and explained that this was the first time the accounts had been produced on an accelerated time table, following last year’s ‘dry run’.  Going forward, the Chamberlain and the Auditors would be considering further measures to make the accounts more streamlined and digestible and keep down the volume of paperwork.

 

The External Auditors were pleased to confirm clean sets of City Fund and Pension Fund accounts, with an unqualified opinion and only minor queries which were in the process of being resolved or would be shortly. Similarly, a couple of minor queries raised during the Member Briefing Sessions were being addressed. This

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

12.

Treasury Management Statement pdf icon PDF 370 KB

Report of the Chamberlain.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 12.

Minutes:

Members received a report of the Chamberlain setting out the Treasury Management Strategy Statement and the Annual Investment Strategy for 2018/19.  Members noted that the Audit and Risk Management Committee and Financial Investment Board had been nominated by the Court of Common Council to scrutinise this statement and strategy.  The Chamberlain suggested, and Members agreed that, going forward, the Audit and Risk Management Committee should review the Statement at mid and year-end, following Financial Investment Board scrutiny.

 

RESOLVED, THAT –

 

  1. The Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy 2018/19 be noted.

 

  1. The Audit and Risk Management Committee continue to Review the Treasury Management Statement and Strategy at mid and year-end, following scrutiny by the Financial Investment Board.

 

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

13.

Internal Audit Update pdf icon PDF 71 KB

Report of the Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 13.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members received a report of the Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management which provided an update on Internal Audit activity since the report to the March 2018 Committee.  Members noted that Mazars had been appointed to review the Police’s financial controls, supervised by in-house Internal Audit Managers. The Head of Internal Audit explained that this is a wide ranging area of work and the completion date would depend on the outcomes from testing;  however, it would remain a high priority on the Plan.

 

In respect of PIs generally, Members noted that it can sometimes be challenging in delivering within target timescales when, for example, Chief Officers have a different view to those officers who have worked with Internal Audit.  The Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management advised that the Internal Audit Team need to spend time in mediating such cases.  It was agreed, however, that in monitoring response times to audit reports, if there were departments who consistently failed to respond in a timely manner, the Chief Officers responsible would be asked to attend the Audit and Risk Management Committee.

 

Members suggested that, since amber risks have such a wide spectrum, they might be better shown in 2 sets, rather than showing ‘double reds’.  There was a further suggestion to move from ‘red, amber and green’ to ‘full, limited, substantial and none’ and officers agreed to look at this.  The Head of Internal Audit reminded Members that statements in respect of assurance levels are  provided in the regular Member briefings and the appendices to the reports. 

 

RESOLVED, that – the report be noted.

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

14.

Questions on matters relating to the work of the Committee

Minutes:

There were no questions.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

15.

Any other Business that the Chairman considers urgent

Minutes:

Members were pleased to note that, following the intervention of the Audit and Risk Management Committee,  the Resource Allocation Sub Committee had agreed that the City Surveyor should present an Annual Report to the Corporate Asset Sub Committee on the routine maintenance required to prevent another build-up of maintenance costs, or ‘bow-wave’. 

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

16.

Exclusion of the Public

 

RESOLVED: That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of the Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

 

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 16.

Minutes:

RESOLVED – That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 5, Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act

 

Item no                                               Paragraph nos.

16 (in respect of item 9)                      1 and 2

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

17.

Non-Public questions on matters relating to the work of the Committee

Minutes:

 

</AI18>

<TRAILER_SECTION>at 4pm, 4.15 and 4.30, Members agreed to extend the meeting to conclude the business on the agenda.

 

**Members received responses the queries referred to in item 9 (City Fund and Pension Fund Financial Statements).

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

18.

Any Other Business that the Chairman considers urgent and which the Committee agree should be considered whilst the public are excluded

Minutes:

There were no items.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.