Agenda and minutes

To receive any declarations of interest from Members of the Panel.

There were no declarations of interest to report at this meeting.

The Minutes of the previous meeting held on 26 May 2015 to be signed by the Chair as a correct record (Minutes attached).

The Minutes of the proceedings of the meeting of the Audit Panel held on 26 May 2015 having been circulated, were signed as a correct record.

To consider a report of the Assistant Executive Director (Finance).

Consideration was given to a report of the Assistant Executive Director (Finance) and Head of Risk Management and Audit Services detailing the work undertaken by the Risk Management and Internal Audit Service between April to September 2015.

The following areas of work undertaken by Risk Management and Audit were reported as follows:-

Risk management – the approved priorities for 2015/16 were detailed as follows:

·         To deliver Risk Workshops for managers from summer onward to enable risk registers to be updated in response to the ‘Decant’ from TAC;

·         To facilitate the continued implementation of the Information Governance Framework by:-

-       Providing advice and guidance in relation to the retention and disposal of information as a priority as part of the ‘Big Tac Tidy Up’;

-       Keeping the framework up to date with any new guidance issued by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO); and

-       Introducing a series of internal reviews across the Council to ensure compliance with procedures and guidance.

·         To review the Business Continuity Management system in place to streamline the process to create a management tool that is workable, with a capability to provide knowledge and information should a major incident occur; and

·         To continue to support managers to assess their risks as services are redesigned to ensure that changes to systems and procedures remain robust and resilient offering cost effective mitigation and that claims for compensation can be successfully repudiated and defended should litigation occur.

With regard to Information Governance Framework, it was reported that advice and guidance was delivered to help support he ‘decant’ from TAC to ensure that information assets were securely transferred to a new location or disposed of in line with corporate guidance.  The Information Governance Framework was currently being reviewed to reflect new ways of working and changing technologies.

With regard to Internal Audit, reference was made to the Internal Audit Plan, which had been approved in May 2015 and covered the period April 2015 to March 2016.  An update on progress against the plan was provided.  It was reported that 41% of the audit plan had been achieved so far, compared with 50% at this stage during 2014/15 and 45% in 2013/14.  It was explained that performance to date had been affected by reduced resources, annual leave and ad hoc requests for reviews, advice and support which were not included in the original plan.  It was further explained that the Audit Plan was responsive to the needs of the organisation and as such, it was normal practice to amend the plan during the year. 

Taking into account progress against the plan in the first six months, additional audits delivered and a reassessment of the days needed to complete the remaining plan, approximately 300 planned days needed to be removed/rescheduled from the approved plan to accommodate new requests detailed in the revised plan.  A revised plan for 2015/16 was appended to the report.

12 final reports had been issued in relation to systems, risk and managed audits.  In addition to the final reports  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

To consider any additional items the Chair is of the opinion shall be dealt with as a matter of urgency.

The Chair reported that there were no urgent items for consideration at this meeting.