Agenda item

REPORT OF THE SHARED INTERNAL AUDIT SERVICE

To receive the SIAS Annual Assurance Statement and Annual Report 2024 – 25.

RESOLVED: That the Committee

(1)    Noted the Annual Assurance Statement and Internal Audit Annual Report.

(2)    Noted the results of the self-assessment required by the Global Internal Audit Standards (GIAS) and the Quality Assurance and Improvement Programme (QAIP).

(3)    Approved the SIAS Audit Charter for 2025/26.

(4)    Sought management assurance that the scope and resources for internal audit were not subject to inappropriate limitations in 2024/25.

REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Committee to be provided with the ails the Shared Internal Audit Service’s overall opinion on the adequacy and effectiveness of North Herts Council’s framework of governance, risk management and control.

Audio recording – 3 minutes 26 seconds

The SIAS Head of Assurance presented the report entitled ‘SIAS Annual Assurance Statement and Internal Audit Annual Report 2024-25’ and highlighted that:

·       The report represented the work conducted in the civic year 2024/25 and an annual assurance opinion for the authority.

·       There were two not yet completed audits, related to the ‘New Finance System’ and ‘Homelessness’. The audit on ‘Homelessness’ was about to start and field work was complete before progressing to a closing meeting and reporting stage on the ‘New Finance System’. 

·       Changes to the Global Internal Audit Standards, which took effect from 1 April 2025, were laid out in Table 1.

·       As required the report confirmed the qualifications of the audit team were still up to standards, that SIAS maintained independence and was not subject to any inappropriate scope or resource limitations.

·       The Annual Self-Assessment scored SIAS as ‘generally conforms’, which was the highest level and an External Quality Assessment was due in 2026.

·       The SIAS Audit Charter set out the framework within which it discharges its internal audit responsibilities to those charged with governance in the partner councils.

·       Assurance mapping was completed in year based on the registered projects and risks in the Council Delivery Plan. The outcomes of this work were new to the report for 2024/25.

·       New root cause analysis as part of the Global Standards started in Quarter 3 and a summary for the first full year in operation would be available at the end of 2025/26 as part of the Annual Assurance Statement at that time.

·       As part of the presentation the Director – Resources confirmed that SIAS was not subject to any inappropriate scope or resource limitations from the Council.

The following Members asked questions:

·       Councillor Paul Ward

·       Councillor Stewart Willoughby

·       Councillor Sean Nolan

·       Councillor Ruth Brown

·       Independent Member John Cannon

In response to questions, the SIAS Head of Assurance stated that:

·       There was some variance in total medium and high priority recommendations compared to last year, this would vary year to year dependant on the nature and type of projects included in the Plan in any given year, but the overall number and prioritisation of recommendations contained in the report were of an acceptable level.

·       The new Global Standards requires Root Cause Analysis for all issues this had been categorised in the table of underlying causes and would be used to identify patterns.

·       Definitions of the categories of Root Cause Analysis were included at Appendix C.

·       There will be a mid-year update on Route Cause analysis but as most of the work on this is done in the Quarters 3 and 4 there would not be a full picture until the end of year report.

·       Experience to date indicates that some issues had multiple root causes and were difficult to categorise.

In response to questions, the Director – Resources stated that:

·       The recommendations outlined on the Estates Audit had a target date of end of June 2025, most of the work was complete, this would be confirmed finished at next meeting of this Committee.

·       Rent reviews had been completed and therefore it was expected there would be financial benefits from those, and these are linked to the Estates Audit, but there was no direct figure for them.

Councillor Vijaiya Poopalasingham proposed and Councillor Paul Ward seconded and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED: That the Committee:

(1)   Noted the Annual Assurance Statement and Internal Audit Annual Report.

(2)   Noted the results of the self-assessment required by the Global Internal Audit Standards (GIAS) and the Quality Assurance and Improvement Programme (QAIP).

(3)   Approved the SIAS Audit Charter for 2025/26.

(4)   Sought management assurance that the scope and resources for internal audit were not subject to inappropriate limitations in 2024/25.

REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Committee to be provided with the ails the Shared Internal Audit Service’s overall opinion on the adequacy and effectiveness of North Herts Council’s framework of governance, risk management and control.