Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Rae Bhatia and Bipon Bhakri.

Members will be asked to declare any interests they have in the business to be discussed.

Members were asked to declare any interests they had in the business on the agenda.

Councillor Clarke declared an interest in the Draft Statement of Accounts report that he currently sat on the Pensions Committee.

The Director of Finance submits a report to the Governance and Audit Committee which presents the External Audit Plan Report 2023-24

The Committee is recommended to note the report.

The Director of Finance submitted a report to the Governance and Audit

Committee which presented the External Audit Plan Report 2023-24.

The External Auditor presented the report, Attention was drawn to the significant risks identified and they were briefly explained. It was noted that risks relating to the recent cyber incident were not included in the report as the Council was still forming a response to that risk with the Auditor.

In response to Members questions it was noted that:

•           Everything in the financial statement was tested so it wasn’t a case of any areas in particular being picked out with regard to significant risk.

•           The issue of journals being done retrospectively was picked up last year. Recommendations had been made on this and Finance Officers had been issued guidance to avoid in happening in future.

•           With regard to leases, most leases the Council had would be captured with the new format of the financial statement for next year.

•           The value for money assessment was done through a set criteria, any concerns brought up in the assessment would go through management and internal audit.

•           Members had been asked to detail any related party transactions they had, the register of interests was also used to determine this.

The management response to enquiries was also noted.

AGREED:

                        That the report be noted.

The Director of Finance presents the Draft Statement of Accounts and Annual Governance Statement 2023/24.

The Governance & Audit Committee is recommended to note the report.

The Director of Finance presented the Draft Statement of Accounts and Annual Governance Statement 2023/24. It was noted that the performance against budget had been taken to the Overview Select Committee the previous week, and the performance across the two presentations was consistent.

It was noted there was no update on the pension fund as it was still going through the audit process at the County Council. Pension accounts across the country were struggling with audit backlogs.

It was suggested that unringfenced reserves could be used to fil funding gaps elsewhere. Officers noted that this was a possibility, and that the Overview Select Committee was responsible for scrutinising the use of departmental budgets.

The Annual Governance Statement was noted.

AGREED:

                        The report was noted.

The Monitoring Officer presents the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 - Bi-Annual Report January – June 2024.

Committee to note the report.

The Monitoring Officer presented the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act

2000 - Bi-Annual Report January – June 2024.

It was noted that the Council had not applied for any authorisations falling under the report’s remit for the period in question.

AGREED:

                        The report was noted.

The Committee entered private session to hear a point of information from a Member.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 6.12pm.