Agenda item

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 to suggest possible actions for the committee or seek direction on unresolved issues. He also recommended that the summaries could be circulated to the relevant service committee chairs to enhance visibility and encourage feedback.

A Member highlighted the importance of improving the visibility of audit findings and funding matters to relevant service committees. They emphasised that without clear visibility, the work of the internal audit team would have less impact, and the oversight could be weakened. In response, the Head of Internal Audit proposed circulating final audit reports to the Chair and Deputy Chair of the relevant service committees at the same time that they are issued to Chief Officers as this would help ensure key stakeholders are informed and are able to respond appropriately. Alternatively, another Member suggested that this circulation should extend to all committee members, as every member should be aware of the audit findings. The Chamberlain suggested that findings relating to physical controls or value for money should be incorporated by the Finance Business Partner into the regular reports to service committees. This would ensure that committee members are aware of the risks they are managing and the timeframes for implementation. She requested that the Finance Business Partner explore this approach with the Finance Leadership Group to ensure that audit points are picked up and reflected in committee reporting. This approach was welcomed by the Member who had made the original request.

The Head of Internal Audit moved on and provided an update on the second line of defence, explaining that work was ongoing and was being informed by live projects. He planned to issue a report to the Town Clerk’s senior leadership team and present it at one of their meetings. The findings would be incorporated into his annual report, which will include conclusions on systemic and operational issues affecting the effectiveness of the second line of defence. The Chair welcomed this and expressed interest in seeing the conclusions once they were available.