Issue - meetings

The Director of Finance submits a report that provides Committee with the regular update on the work of the Council’s Risk Management and Insurance Services team’s activities. The Committee is recommended to receive the report and note its contents, and make any recommendations or comments it sees fit either to the Executive or Director of Finance.

The Director of Finance submitted a report which provided the Committee with the regular update on the work of the Council’s Risk Management and Insurance Services (RMIS) team’s activities. The Audit and Risk Committee was recommended to receive the report and note its contents.

Key elements of the report were highlighted, and the Strategic Risk Register and Operational Risk Registers as at 31 July 2015 were presented. It was noted that the submission of the Divisional risk registers to RMIS was 100%. Also attached to the report was a summary report of successful and repudiated claims against the Council received in the current financial year. Members were asked to note there was a downward trend in the number of claims received. The Committee was informed that since the last report to Committee, the Council had had two cases go to Court; these were successfully defended, which allowed £36,410 and £15,000 respectively to be returned to the Council’s reserves. In the first case the judge praised the Council’s Highways Inspector for the clarity and content of his evidence.

Members were told that detailed analysis of the ALARM/CIPFA risk management benchmarking data was undertaken. ALARM reported that “public sector organisations have more mature arrangements to manage risk now than in 2010, despite reduced budgets (and teams) combined with ever more complex and emerging risks”, which was promising given financial pressures. The Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management would continue to discuss with relevant managers and directors any issues and potential impacts they may have on the Council.

In response to a question from Members, the Director of Finance reported that over the past nine months, individual risk registers had received more scrutiny and peer discussion to ensure each register’s risk scoring was correct. The risk register in Children’s Services did not highlight the risk in the service at that time, and there was an unfortunate period between an officer leaving and a replacement interim officer commencing their role, when no-one updated the relevant risk register. The lesson had been learnt and ‘nil’ or ‘same’ return registers were now not accepted.

The Director of Finance added, strategic directors should share information with the Executive on areas of high risk. Members were also told that risk management training was part of essential core skills for those charged with completing risk assessments, and the Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management gave regular updates to the Senior Management Team to ISO standard, and challenge on risk registers by teams was encouraged.

The Chair thanked officers for the report.

RESOLVED:

that the Audit and Risk Committee note the report.