Issue - meetings

THE REPORT OF THE POLICY AND COMMUNITIES MANAGER

For the Finance, Audit & Risk Committee to approve the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for the year 2023/24. The Statement reviews the Council’s governance arrangements for the 2023/24 period. The report also presents an update on the action plan which seeks to improve governance arrangements during the 2024/25 financial year.

RESOLVED: That the Committee:

(1)   Approves the amended Annual Governance Statement and Action plan at Appendix A.

(2)   Notes the current position of the actions within the Annual Governance Statement Action Plan, outlined at Appendix B.

REASON FOR DECISION:

(1)   The Annual Governance Statement (AGS) must be considered and approved by the Finance Audit and Risk (FAR) Committee before the approval of the Statement of Accounts under Regulation 6(4)(a) of the Accounts and Audit Regulations (‘AAR’) 2015/234.

(2)   The FAR Committee is the legal body with responsibility for approval of the AGS.

(3)   Reviewing the AGS Action Plan during 2024-25 will provide the Committee with assurances that the Council is examining and where necessary improving its governance arrangements.

Audio recording – 4 minutes 31 seconds

The Policy and Strategy Team Leader presented the report entitled ‘Annual Governance Statement 2023/24 and Action Plan For 2024/25’:

·       The final version of the Annual Governance Statement for 23/24 was presented in 2025 due to the local audit back log.

·       The report was made available to SIAS, SAFS and KPMG, in June in 2024 to give them chance to comment. 

·       A draft was also presented to this Committee in June 2024 from which Principle E was reworded as it was thought it went into unnecessary detail . The Chair also asked for further detail on the ICO case, which was subsequently provided via email.

·       The assessment of governance arrangements was made using the CIPFA/SOLACE framework, which includes seven principles, and no significant issues were identified in the review.

·       The action plan provided actions to improve governance.

·       Actions were monitoring and improving the induction programme, office uptake of essential training on the Fraud prevention module (which was less than 75%), cyber prevention, the budget hub, the corporate peer challenge, social value and reviewing organisational structure.

Councillor Ruth Brown proposed and Councillor Tina Bhartwas seconded and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED: That the Committee:

(1)   Approved the amended Annual Governance Statement and Action plan at Appendix A.

(2)   Noted the current position of the actions within the Annual Governance Statement Action Plan, outlined at Appendix B.

REASON FOR DECISION:

(1)   The Annual Governance Statement (AGS) must be considered and approved by the Finance Audit and Risk (FAR) Committee before the approval of the Statement of Accounts under Regulation 6(4)(a) of the Accounts and Audit Regulations (‘AAR’) 2015/234.

(2)   The FAR Committee is the legal body with responsibility for approval of the AGS.

(3)   Reviewing the AGS Action Plan during 2024-25 will provide the Committee with assurances that the Council is examining and where necessary improving its governance arrangements.