Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Alderman Prem Goyal, Alderman Kawsar Zaman, David Sales and Dan Worsley. James St John Davis and Deputy Timothy Butcher were observing virtually.

There were no declarations.

To agree the public minutes and non-public summary of the previous meeting held on 14 July 2025.

RESOLVED – That, the draft public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 14 July 2025 be approved as a correct record subject to the following amendments:

Matters arising

·         Item 6: the Audit and Risk Management Annual Report 24-25. The Committee had requested that future reports should include information on the full-time resourcing levels.

·         Item 7: Internal Audit Update. The Committee had requested an update on the second line of defence and the escalation process for audit actions not completed within three months.

·         Item 9: the counter fraud and investigations annual report 2024/25. Whislteblowing process should be shared with residential ward members.

The Head of Internal Audit provided an update on the two points relating to internal audit. Firstly, he addressed recommendation tracking and tracking open issues where timely implementation had not been secured and informed Members that he had spoken to peers to see how they reported similar levels of information. He explained the challenge of attempting to include the right level of detail and proposed to create a report template which would include a one-page summary per audit, providing an overview of recommendations, implementation status and a summary comment. The summaries would also be bundled and included as part of the Quarterly Report. 

The Head of Internal Audit moved on to the next action, creating a subset of the Internal Audit Plan. He explained that currently, follow-up reviews are dealt with when they are due but proposed that they should be integrated into the internal audit plan to adopt a formal process and improve engagement and tracking.

The Chair sought clarification regarding the follow-up process for incomplete audit actions. The Head of Internal Audit responded and suggested to include the proposed summary report templates and a cover sheet with each audit summary report which would be used

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

Members received the Committee’s list of outstanding actions.

The Town Clerk provided an update on the remaining action regarding the recruitment of an external Member. Three applications had been received from the advert, and interviews for all three candidates were scheduled for October.

A Member raised a concern that the original intent of the action – reviewing the induction process for new Members – was at risk of getting lost. Clarification was sought on whether this referred to induction for the Audit and Risk Management Committee or the wider Court of Common Council. The Town Clerk confirmed that the wider induction process was being reviewed by the Member Development and Standards Sub-Committee following the 2025 elections.

Further discussion clarified that the original action had three components: induction for all Members of the Court of Common Council, induction specific to Audit and Risk Management responsibilities, and induction for external Members of the Audit and Risk Management Committee. The Chief Strategy Officer confirmed that these elements are being addressed through various governance channels, and that outputs from the review would be publicly available. She offered to report back with a timeline and signpost relevant papers to ensure that Members remained informed.

RESOLVED – That, Members received the action tracker and noted its content.

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

Members received the Committee’s work programme.

The Head of Internal Audit said that the proposed 2026 meetings in the programme were difficult to align with Internal Audit operational activity. He proposed reviewing the meeting schedule to better align with operational cycles.

RESOLVED – That, the report be noted.

Report of the Chief Strategy Officer.

Members received a report of the Chief Strategy Officer, who described the status of the risk management work as continuously evolving. It was highlighted that service committees are setting risk appetite against corporate risks. The key updates were as follows:

·       Corporate Risks CR2 and CR10: Following discussion, it was determined that these risks should remain separate. CR2 (Loss of Business Support) is being reframed to better reflect the Corporation’s strategic concerns and will be reviewed at the next Chief Officer Risk Management Group (CORMG) meeting in October.

·       CR33 (Major Projects) and CR29 (Information Management): These risks were going to be revised with the Chamberlain to ensure that they are reframed as risks rather than issues.

·       CR39 (Recruitment and Retention): This risk was considered outdated and work has been underway with HR to assess whether any people-related risks should be elevated to corporate level. An invitation had been extended to the interim Chief People Officer to attend the next committee meeting to discuss this further.

·       Likelihood and impact: Following questions raised at call over, the team had analysed the 13 corporate risks, and it was found that 12 aim to reduce their scores: 8 by lowering likelihood, 3 by reducing impact, and 1 by addressing both. Only CR36 (Protective Security) is not aiming to reduce its score but is actively managed.

·       Mitigation Themes and Timeframes: Common mitigation themes included funding, resourcing, stakeholder engagement, strategic planning, and emergency preparedness, with timeframes ranging from six months to long-term targets in 2027 and 2029. Three risks (CR29, CR33, CR39) were overdue but are undergoing revision.

·       Data Protection and GDPR: Clarification was provided on GDPR-related risks, which were split between CR16 (external breaches) and CR29 (internal data handling) to reflect the different aspects of data protection.

The Chair thanked the team for their work and

There were no questions raised.

Apart from the City Fund and Pension Fund Accounts circulated as a late item, no other business was raised.

Report of the Chamberlain.

Members received a report of the Chamberlain concerning the City Fund and Pension Fund Statement of Accounts.

The Town Clerk noted that late papers had been circulated at the end of the previous week, including the City Fund and Pension Fund financial statements under Item 8A. With Members’ agreement, the Chair opted to take this item ahead of the Risk Management Update. The Chair acknowledged her appreciation to officers and external auditors but expressed her concern that Members had only received papers late on Friday before a Monday morning meeting; this left Members with limited time to digest and review the information. She requested that future papers be circulated earlier to allow proper consideration. The Financial Services Director explained that the delay was due to efforts to include the most up-to-date information and auditor feedback, noting that the statutory deadline for publishing the final accounts is 30 September. She agreed to work with the Town Clerk to explore moving future September committee meetings to later in the month to better accommodate this timetable.

The Chamberlain and the external auditors took the Committee through the highlights in the Statement of Accounts. The highlights included:

• Out of the 13 audit recommendations from previous years, five remained outstanding and were being addressed in the 2025/26 accounts.

• Out of the 25 improvement recommendations from the auditor’s findings report, 16 have been addressed and four superseded. Attention was drawn to a key recommendation on page 34 of Appendix 5 regarding HRA pressures and reserves.

• On related party disclosures, she noted that 43 remain outstanding, including 18 from ex-Members which had been progressed through the Chamberlain, and if they remained unresolved within a week, the issue may be brought to the Committee for further escalation.

An officer from the Chamberlain’s Department presented the key changes in

MOTION, 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.                                            

To agree the non-public minutes of the previous meeting held on 14 July 2025

RESOLVED - That, the non-public minutes of the previous meeting held on 14 July 2025be approved as an accurate record, as amended.

Non-Public Appendix to be received in conjunction with Item 6.

Members received a report from the Chief Strategy Officer providing an update on the non-public appendix for Risk Management.

There were no questions raised.

No other urgent business was raised.

Report of the Chamberlain.

Members received a report from the Chamberlain providing an update on the External Auditor Appointment – City Fund and City’s Estate paper.