Issue - meetings

REPORT OF THE POLICY AND COMMUNITIES MANAGER

For the Finance, Audit & Risk Committee to approve the Local Code of Corporate Governance for 2024; and to review the progress of the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) Action plan for 2023/24.

RESOLVED: That the Committee:

(1)   Approved the Local Code of Corporate Governance 2024 (Appendix A).

(2)   Noted the current position with the Annual Governance Statement Action Plan (Appendix B).

Audio recording – 1 hour 1 minute 7 seconds

The Policy and Strategy Team Leader presented the report entitled ‘Local Code of Corporate Governance 2024 and Annual Governance Statement Action Plan Update 2023-24’ and drew attention to the following, that:

·       The Local Code of Corporate Governance 2024 was shown in Appendix A

·       Appendix B was the update of the Annual Governance Statement Action Plan 2023-24 which was agreed by the Committee in 2023.

·       The Local Code of Corporate Governance was based on the CIPFA/SOLACE Framework Delivering Good Governance in Local Government 2016 Edition principles, the Committee last reviewed this in March 2023, and it was a requirement to review this annually.

·       The Framework in Appendix A encompassed seven principles and covered various aspects of governance.

·       Should the Committee approve the statement it would be published on the Council website and Members and staff would be informed using MIS and Insight.

·       The Local Code and the CIPFA/SOLACE Framework provided a measure of the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) and was used for self assessment.

·       The majority of the AGS 2023-24 action plan was complete, the only item outstanding was the ethical awareness training.

·       For the period of May 2023 to January 2024, 55% of staff and 18% of Members had undertaken the Fraud Awareness training, this was an increase of 2%.

·       For the period of May 2023 to January 2024, Anti Bribery training was highlighted as 84% for staff and 22% for Members.

The following Members asked questions:

·       Councillor Mandi Tandi

·       Councillor Tom Plater

·       Councillor Tamsin Thomas

In response to questions the Policy and Strategy Team Leader stated that:

·       There were no changes from the 2023 Local Code of Corporate Governance. 

·       Learning and Development had been working with the Shared Anti-Fraud Service (SAFS) to increase awareness of these courses and there had been a presentation at the recent staff briefing form SAFS.

·       There had also been a presentation to Members prior to the November Council Meeting.

In response to a question the Service Director – Resources stated that:

·       The training results were reviewed by SIAS as part of their audit and this would be highlighted to Managers.

·       There was a balance to the time spent training and that spent chasing Officers and Members to take the training.

·       The ethical awareness training would form part of the Post May Election training for Members and would be enforced more rigorously.

Councillor Tamsin Thomas proposed and Councillor Chris Lucas seconded and following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED: That the Committee:

(1)   Approved the Local Code of Corporate Governance 2024 (Appendix A).

(2)  Noted the current position with the Annual Governance Statement Action Plan (Appendix B).