Agenda item

Jaclyn Gibson, Chief Finance Officer:

a.    presented a report to review the effectiveness of the Audit Committee against Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) guidance on Audit Committees 2022

b.    advised that the assessment was completed by the Chief Finance Officer and the Audit Manager initially and a roundtable discussion took place with members

c.    explained that a score of 165/200 was achieved for the Self-Assessment of Good Practise and whilst not scored, a good level of compliance was achieved against the evaluation of the impact of and effectiveness of the Audit Committee

d.    summarised the following areas of the assessment:

o   Terms of Reference review

o   CIPFA Self-Assessment

o   CIPFA Evaluation of the impact and effectiveness of the Audit Committee

o   Summary and Conclusions

e.    explained that the Chair and Vice Chair had only been in place since June 2023, ensuring that they had the necessary processes in place, support, skills and knowledge was key to maintaining the effectiveness of the Audit Committee

f.     referred to the Action Plan contained at Appendix C of the report and advised that this would ensure that the maintaining of the effectiveness of Audit Committee was achieved and it also enabled a revised training plan to be compiled to address any ‘gaps’ in knowledge and skills identified for the Audit Committee as a whole.Progress against this plan would be brought to this Committee

g.    invited committee’s comments and questions:

Comment: The CIPFA Position Statement  and CIPFA Guidance on Audit Committees that had been provided for members attending the roundtable discussion were very useful documents. Would it be possible to circulate these documents to all members of the Audit Committee along with the Audit Committee Terms of Reference at the beginning of each municipal year?

Response: Yes, these documents could be circulated to members at the beginning of each municipal year.

Question: The CIPFA Guidance emphasised looking at risk registers in relation to major projects and partnerships. Could the risk assessments for the Western Growth Corridor be brought to Audit Committee?

Response from Officers: There needed to be a balance between what was considered at Performance Scrutiny Committee and what was considered at Audit Committee. The role of Performance Scrutiny Committee was to consider performance, expenditure and risk. The Western Growth Corridor was part of the audit plan for this year, and the results would be presented to Audit Committee in due course once the audit was completed. This would provide the Audit Committee with an opportunity to scrutinise the Western Growth Corridor Audit.

Response from External Audit: External Audit considered the value for money arrangements and governance. The Western Growth Corridor project including the risk assessments would be considered as part of that work.

Question:In future could all members be invited to attend audit training rather than just members of the Audit Committee? This would provide all members with a flavour of the committee and ensure some consistency  if membership changed due to elections.
Response: Yes, all members could be invited to attend audit training in the future.

RESOLVED that:

1.    The Review of the Effectiveness of the Audit Committee and Action plan be noted.

2.    The CIPFA Position Statement and CIPFA Guidance be circulated to members of the Audit Committee for information at the beginning of each municipal year.

3.    All members be invited to attend training in relation to the Audit Committee.