Agenda item

Report of the Chamberlain. This report will also be considered by the Policy and Resources Committee on 21 January 2015.

The Committee considered a report of the Chamberlain which provided the provisional revenue budget for 2016/17 in relation to operational services directly overseen by the Finance Committee. The proposed budget totalled £55.688m, an increase of 5.0% compared to the 2015/16 budget.

The Chamberlain explained that, if approved, the budget uplift of £505,000 to cover the growth in server usage and storage, which the report proposed be requested from Policy and Resources Committee, would be ring-fenced for solely that purpose, and would not be drawn upon until a mitigation plan had been approved by the Finance Committee (or its Information Technology Sub-Committee).

The Committee discussed the proposal to request that Policy and Resources Committee approve a budget uplift for this issue. The Committee noted that it was important to demonstrate that the Finance Committee supported financial prudence across the Corporation, particularly in light of the challenges faced by all Committees in the Service Based Review. The Committee also agreed that, while this issue had been discussed at IT Sub-Committee meetings over the previous year, there had not previously been an indication of additional budget requirements to address this. The Committee suggested that it may have been possible to provide an indication of this requirement earlier in the budget setting process.

The Committee agreed that a sufficiently strong case had not been presented to the Committee for the Committee to recommend the proposal to the Policy and Resources Committee. The Committee agreed that it should be presented with the mitigation plan to reduce or remove the requirements for additional IT storage. Only following the mitigation plan demonstrating that all other possible actions had been taken and that additional funding was required and unavoidable would the Committee consider requesting additional funding from the Policy and Resources Committee.

The Committee also commented that information as to the increases in the various budget areas set out within the report did not provide sufficient information to allow the Committee to determine whether the increases were justifiable. The Chamberlain agreed to ensure that further detail of the reason for variances was provided in future reports of this nature. Members particularly requested that report be provided regarding the increase in insurance, and the Chamberlain agreed that this could be provided to the Committee’s next meeting.

RESOLVED – That the Committee:

a)    notes the forecast underspend of £222,000 at 31 March 2016 against the Chamberlain’s 2015/16 local risk budget which will be applied towards the additional unfunded Oracle Project costs of £585,000. The Oracle Project costs will be the subject of a report to your February Committee;

b)    approves the provisional 2016/17 revenue budget;

c)    agrees that a report on the mitigation plan for the estimated  growth in server usage and storage be presented to the Committee;

d)    authorises the Chamberlain to revise these budgets to allow for any necessary realignment of funds – including those set out in paragraph 23;

e)    notes the draft capital and supplementary revenue budgets;

f)     agrees that a report be submitted to the Committee’s next meeting providing further information regarding the cost of insurance.