Agenda item

Report of the Commissioner, City of London Police.

The Committee considered a report of the City of London Police (CoLP) Commissioner relative to the progress that had been made in relation to recommendations in Internal Audit reports for the Police Commissioner. The report stated that there had been a number of internal audits carried out in the CoLP, and the recommendations from each of these had been consolidated into one action plan. The action plan identifies action owners and regular progress updates will be given by the Finance Director to the Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner.

The Commissioner advised that the CoLP continued to recruit for a permanent Finance Director following the appointment of an interim Finance Director. The Chairman was pleased that the candidates for the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Finance Officer were promising.

Regarding outstanding debt, the Commissioner advised that the recovery of outstanding debts is a high priority for the CoLP finance team, and progress has been made since the audit report.  Old and irrecoverable debts will be written off against the bad debt provision and systems are in place to ensure backlogs do not build up for future reference. 

Members advised the Commissioner that ownership and the culture of risk must be addressed, and Finance and Operations within the Police must work together.

RESOLVED – That the Committee,

1.    note the contents of the City of London Police Internal Audit Action Plan; and

2.    consider the need for a further update of the action plan at the next Audit and Risk Management Committee.