Agenda item

Report of the Director of Finance & Transformation / Section 151 Officer

The Committee received the report as set out on pages 13-37 of the agenda, which asked it to note the progress made in delivering the 2018/19 Audit Plan and management’s implementation of the internal audit recommendations.

Mr Mark Watkins, Head of Audit at CW Audit Services, provided the Committee with a summary of the report. Since the last meeting of the Committee, three further reviews had been carried out in relation to Cyber Security (Moderate Assurance), Legal Compliance (Significant Assurance) and Food Safety (Limited Assurance).

With regard to Cyber Security, it was confirmed that the achievement of Significant Assurance was rare across Local Authorities, therefore the achievement of Moderate Assurance was to be taken as a positive. It was also confirmed that the responses received from the ICT Partnership to the audit recommendations had been encouraging, and these recommendations would now be progressed by the Partnership with the assistance of the Council’s IT contractor. The implementation of these actions is to be monitored by the Project Board.

In relation to Food Safety, Mr Watkins confirmed that a number of encouraging and prompt actions had been taken by management to address the recommendations made in light of the Limited Assurance level reported. The Head of Law & Governance clarified that one of the recommendations related to a training need identified in respect of the Environmental Health Team Leader, however since the report was finalised this employee had subsequently left the organisation. In the meantime a comprehensive service review of Environmental Health and Licensing had commenced and an Officer with significant experience in the area of Food Safety was currently acting up in the Team Leader role. The service review was also looking into the potential benefits of upgrading the software system used by the team to automate and improve a number of processes which were currently labour intensive.

A Member of the Committee expressed concern that the Taxi Licensing assurance level remained Limited, and asked why this rating had not been revised in light of assurances provided by management at the previous meeting of the Committee that actions had been taken to address the audit findings. It was confirmed by the Director of Finance & Transformation that the assurance level provided when the report is finalised is effectively a ‘snapshot’ rating given at that particular moment in time, and the rating remains in place until such time as a full follow-up review is conducted. The Committee therefore requested that follow up reviews in respect of Food Safety and Taxi Licensing be added to the 2019/20 Audit Plan to assess whether the implementation of the audit recommendations and the Environmental Health and Licensing service review were resulting in improved outcomes.

With regard to the recommendation tracking contained within the audit report, a Member of the Committee noted that two items from the 2016/17 Housing Repairs & Maintenance service audit were still included on the list, and it was queried why these remained incomplete. The Head of Planning, Development & Regeneration confirmed that the items were nearing completion and it was anticipated that sign-off should be achieved in time for the next meeting of the Committee.

The Committee noted the audit report from September 2018 in relation to the Council’s cleaning contract, and expressed disappointment in the finding that service delivery by the contractor had not been of an acceptable standard since the contract was let in September 2017. It was requested that the Service Delivery Committee be updated at its next meeting on any proposed actions to address the areas of concern identified by the audit.

It was moved by the Chair, seconded by the Vice-Chair and

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED THAT:

The contents of the report and Appendices be noted.

In accordance with Rule 7.3 of Part 4 of the Constitution, the Chair moved for the order of business to be altered and taken in the order as reflected in the minutes.

By affirmation of the meeting, it was

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED THAT:

The order of business be altered accordingly.