Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Paul Martinelli, Randall Anderson and John Petrie.

The Deputy Chairman declared a general (non-pecuniary) interest in respect of item 4 and, as it concerned her appointment for a further term, would leave the room when this item was considered.

To agree the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 17^th July 2018.

RESOLVED, that - the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 17 July 2018 be approved

Members are asked to note the minutes of the Nominations Sub Committee Meeting of 17^th July 2018 and to endorse the recommendation in respect of the appointment of an External Member, for a third term.

Members received the approved minutes of the Nominations Sub Committee of 17July 2018.

Members noted that, at today’s meeting of the Sub Committee, Members had discussed the content of a skills audit, in which all Members would be asked to participate.

In respect of the appointment of an External Member, for a third term, Members noted and confirmed the recommendation of the Nominations Sub Committee of 17^th July 2018 and it was RESOLVED, that – the appointment of Hilary Daniels (External Member and Deputy Chairman), for a third term of three years, commencing in 2019, be recommended to the Court of Common Council.

Member are asked to note the Committee’s Outstanding Actions List.

Members received the Committee’s latest outstanding actions list and noted that the action in respect of police seized goods had been followed up and would be removed.

Member are asked to note the Committee’s Work Programme.

Members received the Committee’s work programme and noted that an update on GDPR and the Whistleblowing Policy would be presented to the November meeting of the Committee. 

Furthermore, in light of the discussions at today’s Risk Challenge Session, in respect of the Multi Academy Trust, there would be a report on governance across all of the City schools, in January 2019, and the Chairman of the Education Board and the Education Strategist would be invited.

Report of the Chamberlain.

Members received a report of the Chamberlain and External Auditors in respect of this year’s closure of accounts.  The External Auditor advised of an additional, non-material recommendation in respect of over-accruing expenditure, which had been caused by a system error and was being rectified.

RESOLVED, that – the report be noted.

Report of the Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management.

Members received the Internal Auditor’s Recommendations Follow Up Report and welcomed the new ‘Appendix 3’ in respect of accepted risks.   The Chairman reminded Members of the Committee’s non-executive status and the need for some tolerance of accepted risks, as had been the case with seized goods.     The Assistant Commissioner was in attendance and gave assurance that the Police Professional Standards Team would be conducting quarterly audits of seized property and new software was in place.

In respect of the report generally, Members reiterated the importance of only allowing target dates to be changed once and noted that some; i.e. the ICT strategies, were 3 years old and likely to need updating. 

RESOLVED, that – the report be noted.

Report of the Chamberlain.

Members received a report of the Chamberlain which provided the Committee with an update on the corporate and top red departmental risk registers, following the review by the Chief Officer Risk Management Group (CORMG) on 3 July 2018 and Summit Group on 25 July 2018.  

Members noted a new corporate risk; ‘Failure to deliver fire safety projects in the Barbican Centre’, would be the considered by CORMG on 10 October 2018..In addition Sir Nick Keyon, Manging Direction, Barbican Centre would be attending the  Committee’s November informal risk challenge session where Members might wish to discuss progress on managing this risk. CORMG would also be considered two other emerging risks on “Brexit for the City Corporation” and “Organisational change for corporate status.  

Members were reminded that CR02: ‘Loss of Business Support’ was a separate risk which focused on the potential causes for the loss of business support for the City of London.; at 11 (A) on this agenda.  Members asked about the impact of a change of government on CR02 and the Chamberlain agreed to refer this to the Remembrancer.

RESOLVED, that – the decision of the Summit Group to remove both CR19 IT Service provision and CR22 Barbican Fire safety risk from the corporate risk register be endorsed and the report be noted.

Report of the Chamberlain.  

Members received a report of the Chamberlain in respect of a question raised by Zurich Municipal during the recent corporate risk profiling exercise, as to the public availability of the City Corporation’s Risk Register (included within the regular risk update reports to the Audit and Risk Management Committee on the public agenda).  Members noted that Risk was reported in greater depth at the City Corporation than many other local authorities.  However, given the non-executive status of the Audit and Risk Management Committee, it was unlikely that they would consider commercially sensitive risks in detail. 

Members noted that Members of the City Corporation were keen to keep as much information in public as possible and it was City Corporation Policy to apply the  Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 in respect of City’s Cash reports, even though it was not required to do so.  Furthermore, the City Corporation had recently amended the template for non-public reports, to make them more specific as to their reason(s) for exclusion.  Officers were required to make a case for a report being non-public, with the final decision resting with the Town Clerk.  Members also noted that it was good practice for a public report to have a non-public appendix, if possible, and not to exclude the entire report.

RESOLVED, that –

1.             The existing approach of including the risk update report (and corporate risk register) within the Public part of the Committee’s agenda be agreed.

2.             The Chairman’s discretion in moving discussion about one or more risks, where appropriate, to the Non-Public part of the meeting be noted.

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(A)           CR20: Road Safety

Members received a report of the Director of the Built Environment in respect of Road Safety.   During the discussion and questions on this item, the following points were noted:

·       Members noted the success of schemes at Holborn Circus, Aldgate Street and Bank but remained concerned in respect of Ludgate Circus.  The Director had met with Transport for London in respect of Ludgate Circus to ensure it was being given priority.

·       The Department worked with the Police in respect of safety campaigns and enforcement, and in ‘engineering out’ risks, and the new Transport Strategy sought to put pedestrians first.   The Road Transport Reduction Plan focussed on river transport, consolidation centres and redefining ‘peak times’, given the City’s night-time economy.  There were further comments in respect of  automatic vehicles and scooters being ridden on pavements etc. 

·       An analysis of the dip in figures in 2013 had been inconclusive but   accidents at roadwork sites were studied carefully.  The charts in the report were reflective of London generally; i.e. a general downward trajectory with a recent slight uplift.   The Director offered more information to Members on request.

·       Following accidents, data in respect of age, circumstances, vehicles, weather and time of day were fully scrutinised; with inattentive pedestrians and undisciplined cyclists being a major contributor.  Officers looked for common themes, which were reviewed annually, with extra focus on serious injuries or fatalities. 

·       Some Members raised concern about poor signage on temporary pedestrian routes.   The Director advised that it was possible to manage phasing of lights and traffic movement, in consultation with TfL, and offered to commission an independent road safety audit and report back to the Streets and Walkways Sub Committee.

·       Members noted the rigid safety code for contractors and the Director encouraged them to report areas of concern.

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

Report of the Director of Economic Development

Report of the Commissioner, City of London Police.

Members considered a report of the City of London Police which provided Members with an overview of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) continuing programme of inspections and published reports, together with the City of London Police (CoLP) response where relevant. It additionally provided assurance that the recommendations from reports were being addressed by the Force.  

RESOLVED, that – the report be noted.

There were no questions.

There were no items.

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.

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.

Item no                                               Para no

16-19                                                   1, 2 & 3

To agree the Non-Public minutes of the meeting held on 17^th July 2018.

RESOLVED, that -  the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 17 July 2018 be approved.

Joint report of the Chamberlain and the Commissioner, City of London Police.

Members received a report of the Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management. 

There were no questions.

There were no items.