Agenda item

To present the report of the Head of Audit and Risk.

The report of the Head of Audit and Risk incorporating CIPFA’s review of the operation of the Governance and Audit Committee was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report set out the outcome of a piece of work which the Governance and Audit Committee of the Isle of Anglesey County Council commissioned CIPFA to undertake to fulfil the requirements of CIPFA’s Position Statement: Audit Committees in Local Authorities and Police 2022 which recommends that audit committees evaluate their impact and identify areas for improvement.

The Head of Audit and Risk provided an overview of the report highlighting the conclusions of the review and the areas identified for improvement and she outlined the contents of the action plan formulated to address the recommendations made by the review.

Points of discussion by the Committee –

·      The value of producing an action log in tabular form following each meeting utilising the 4action tracking system deployed by Internal Audit to enable the Committee to monitor the progress and completion of the actions/decisions it has agreed upon. The Head of Audit and Risk confirmed that she would be producing an action log for each meeting.

·      Some disparity between the use of terminology in the English and Welsh versions of the review report were noted which could create confusion/misunderstanding especially where a Welsh term has dual meaning as in “cynghorwyr” meaning councillors and/or advisors. The Head of Audit and Risk confirmed that the Welsh translation had been arranged by CIPFA and undertaken externally to the Council’s own translation service.

·      That the review is predominantly focused on processes and practice and does not make substantive reference to the Committee’s impact or effect. The Committee noted that it would have been helpful had the review included more in the way of feedback on the Committee’s performance from management especially as the personnel interviewed had included senior and key officers.

·      That it might also have been useful had CIPFA attended more meetings of the Governance and Audit Committee to gain a fuller appreciation of the Committee in operation as well as the CIPFA representative and report author being in attendance for the presentation of the review report.

·      Whether areas within the Committee’s terms of reference identified as implicit should be made explicit. It was noted that the review refers to six annual reports having been presented to the Committee that were not explicitly on the terms of reference and clarification of the reasoning for their having been brought to the Committee was sought.

·      That when setting the agenda consideration be given to differentiating between items requiring a decision/resolution and those to be noted as information as well to the number of items for information only. Items should also be appropriate and within the Committee’s remit.

·      The ways in which the Committee can improve its effectiveness and output and become more proactive rather than reactive. Suggestions were made about reports needing to be clear regarding their purpose and the expectations of the Governance and Audit Committee in terms of the decisions/action required. It was suggested that briefings might be more productive and helpful to members were they held with the Committee in its entirety rather than pre-meeting with the Chair and Deputy Chair. It was further suggested that the Committee could be briefed in advance on an upcoming agenda item and members asked to explore/research the subject area themselves so that they can bring ideas to the meeting when the Committee formally considers the matter.

·      That the Committee’s approach should be more risk focused with greater attention and examination being given to those reports where the risks to the business and therefore the impact if not effectively mitigated, are higher. 

The Committee was advised by the Head of Audit and Risk with regard to the alignment between matters brought to the Committee and its Terms of Reference that the six annual reports presented to the Committee highlighted by the review as not being explicitly on the Committee’s Terms of Reference relate to the Committee’s responsibilities in respect of the Council’s assurance framework i.e., they are mainly assurance reports (with two pertaining to the Council’s complaints handling which are statutory requirements), but are not explicitly listed in the Terms of Reference. CIPFA’s view was that those reports should be explicit within the terms of reference if they need to be revisited by the Committee on an annual basis and not captured implicitly under a general governance and assurance heading. The Head of Audit and Risk said that with the Committee’s agreement she would circulate to the Committee’s members for comment the Terms of Reference with the annual reports explicitly set out therein before the Terms of Reference are then brought to the Committee for review at its June 2024 meeting.

It was resolved –

·      To note CIPFA’s review of the Governance and Audit Committee and,

·      To approve the actions proposed to address CIPFA’s recommendations.

Additional actions agreed –

·      Head of Audit and Risk to produce an action log to monitor progress against actions/decisions agreed at each meeting.

·      Head of Audit and Risk to circulate to the Committee’s members for comment the Committee’s Terms of Reference with the changes recommended by CIPFA ahead of their formal review by Committee in June 2024.

·      To enhance the Committee’s proactiveness, that consideration be given to trialling an approach whereby the Committee is briefed in advance of an upcoming agenda item to enable members to research the subject area for ideas ahead of its being formally considered by the Committee.