Agenda item

Report of the Chamberlain.

The Committee considered a report of the Chamberlain which provided the Committee with the quarterly update on the work of the Financial Services Division of the Chamberlain's Department.

The Chairman advised Members that the Oracle Programme project closure report had been considered by the Projects Sub-Committee and the Information Technology Sub-Committee. The Chairman informed the Sub-Committee that the IT Sub-Committee had agreed that a new project should be created, to be monitored by the Efficiency and Performance Sub-Committee, which ensured that the business benefits of the Oracle Programme were realised by the Corporation.

A Member noted that the report stated that a key challenge for the Division would be the implementation of Financial Reporting Statements (FRS102), rather than UK GAAP. The Member asked for clarification as to whether the Corporation would amend its terminology in line with the requirements of FRS102. The Chamberlain advised that the Corporation would amend its terminology in line with FRS102 to ensure consistency with other organisations. The Chamberlain also advised that FRS102 would be likely to lead to some changes to the income and expenditure calculations in the Corporation's accounts.

The Committee noted that the Court of Common Council had approved an increase in the Business Rates Premium at its last meeting, and reaffirmed the position that this increase was specifically to be added to City of London Police budget for 2016/17 to provide increased security spending within the City.

The Chamberlain highlighted that the Chancellor's Budget announcement the following day was expected to announce that the situation in relation to public finance was likely to be worse than had been anticipated in the autumn statement. It was expected that a further 0.5% savings would be required, although it was not know at this stage on which departments this savings requirement would fall.

Members noted that this indicated that the achievement of the Service Based Review efficiency savings continued to be vital to the Corporation, and it was important that a view of continuous efficiency savings was adopted. Members noted that it was important to ensure that central services provided to Service Departments were benchmarked against the market to ensure that they provided a high quality service at an acceptable price to the Departments. The Chamberlain assured Members that this was done.

RESOLVED – That the Committee notes the report