The Committee is asked to note any apologies for absence and substitutions received from Members.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Placey, with no substitute appointed.

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on

It was unanimously RESOLVED that the Minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on Tuesday, 25 September 2025, be approved as a correct record and be signed by the Chairman.

Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests, Other Registerable Interests or Non-Registerable Interests, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest made by Councillors in relation to any item on the agenda for this meeting.

Subject to providing two working days’ notice, a Member of the Committee may ask the Chairman of the Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the Tendring District and which falls within the terms of reference of the Committee.

On this occasion no Councillor had submitted notice of a question pursuant to Council Procedure Rule 38.

To present for consideration and approval a number of associated reports which include the following, to enable the final opinion on the accounts and value for money arrangements to be formally issued by the External Auditor:

·         The External Auditor’s Report for the year ended 31 March 2025;

·         The External Auditor’s Value for Money Report 2024/25;

·         The Council’s Statement of Accounts (including the Annual Governance Statement) for 2024/25 for consideration and approval for publication by the backstop date of 27 February 2026

(THIS REPORT IS "TO FOLLOW")

The Committee received a report whereby the External Auditor was able to formally issue the final opinion on the accounts and the value for money arrangements. This allowed Members to consider the following:

• The External Auditor’s Annual Report for the year ended 31 March 2025
• The External Auditor’s Year End Report for the year ended 31 March 2025

• The Council’s Statement of Accounts (including the Annual Governance Statement and proposed External Auditor’s Opinion) for 2024/25 for consideration and approval for publication by the backstop date of 27 February 2026.

The first two reports included the External Auditor’s Value for Money commentary.

The Council’s External Auditors had prepared the following two reports:

1)    The External Auditor’s Annual Report for the year ended 31 March 2025 (Attachment 1)

External Auditors were required to prepare such reports setting out the outcomes from their review of the Statement of Accounts (including the Annual Governance Statement) and the Council’s value for money arrangements. The Audit Committee was asked to consider the content of this annual report as part of the associated approval process that had related to the publication of the final audited Statement of Accounts and Annual Governance Statement.

2)    The External Auditor’s Year End Report for the year ended 31 March 2025 (Attachment 2)

To a large extent this covered the issues raised in the report highlighted above but along with some additional matters, it effectively acted as an overall and detailed summary of the various activities undertaken by the External Auditor and their associated findings for 2024/25.

The External Auditor reported that the audit was substantially complete, subject to a small number of outstanding items, including the Management Representation Letter.

It was noted that the Audit Committee was required to approve the Management Representation Letter separately and to authorise the Corporate Director (Finance & IT) and the Chairman of the Audit Committee to sign it prior to its submission to the External Auditor. The proposed letter (Attachment 3) followed the standard template, and based on current information, the External Auditor did not anticipate requesting any additional representations beyond those normally required.

Once the remaining tasks had been completed, the External Auditor would be able to finalise and formally issue the audit opinion and certify the accounts for 2024/25

Members were advised that the reports included detailed value for money commentary, building on the interim report presented to the Committee in September 2025. The Council was required to publish this commentary on its website at the same time as the Statement of Accounts.

A summary of the key content of the External Auditor’s reports was provided as follows:

External Auditor’s Annual Report for the year ended 31 March 2025

The Interim Annual Report had been presented to the Committee at its meeting held on 25 September 2025. Work had continued since this date and an updated and useful high-level summary against various key elements was set out on page 4 of the External Auditor’s latest report.

At the time of finalising this report, the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

To provide a periodic report on the Internal Audit function for the period September 2025 – January 2026 and to provide an annual review of the Anti-Fraud and Corruption Strategy for approval by the Audit Committee.

The Internal Audit Manager provided a periodic report on the Internal Audit function for the period September 2025 – January 2026 along with an annual review of the Anti-Fraud and Corruption Strategy.

The Committee was informed that the Global Audit Standards required the Internal Audit Manager to plan for reporting to senior management (Management Board) and to the board (Audit Committee) during the year, and to produce an annual Internal Audit opinion and report that could be used to inform the Annual Governance Statement.

It was reported that seven audits had been completed since the last meeting of the Audit Committee held in September 2025 and that all seven audits had received a satisfactory level of overall assurance of ‘Adequate Assurance’ or ‘Substantial Assurance’.

A further eight audits from the 2025/26 Internal Audit Plan had been allocated (three of which were consultative reviews) and nine were currently at the fieldwork phase.

The audits that had been completed in this period were:

·         Corporate Governance

·         Housing Strategy and Homelessness

·         Environmental Services

·         Emergency Planning

·         Corporate Complaints

·         Members Conduct and Expenses

·         Treasury Management

No significant issues had been identified for the Audit Committee to be concerned about, with only some moderate actions agreed to be managed through the regular follow-up process with the service.

Quality Assurance – The Internal Audit function issued satisfaction surveys for each audit had been completed. No unsatisfactory responses had been received in this period.

Resourcing

Members were informed that Internal Audit currently had an establishment of 4 FTE posts with access to a third-party provider of Internal Audit Services for specialist audit days as and when required. The Internal Audit Team currently had an Audit Technician post vacant. They had had an apprentice working within the team for over a year who was continuing to develop well and who had currently been undertaking the administrative responsibilities for the Audit, Fraud and Compliance functions.

Outcomes of Internal Audit Work

The Public Sector Internal Audit Standards required the Internal Audit Manager to report to the Audit Committee on significant risk exposures and control issues. Since the last report four audits had been completed and the final report issued.

For the purpose of the colour coding approach, both the substantial and adequate opinions had been shown in green as both were within acceptable tolerances.

Members heard that no issues had been reported arising from audits completed in the period under review with none receiving an ‘Improvement Required’ opinion that required reporting to the Audit Committee.

Management Response to Internal Audit Findings

It was reported that there were processes in place to track the action taken regarding findings that had been raised in Internal Audit reports and to seek assurance that appropriate corrective action had been taken. Where appropriate, follow up audits had been arranged to revisit  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

Report on the recent Building Safety Regulator (BSR) audit of the Council’s Building Control function, requested by the Corporate Director (Finance and IT) and Section 151 Officer and Corporate Governance, Performance and Procurement Manager.

Members received a report of the Head of Planning and Building Control (A.3) which outlined the recent Building Safety Regulator (BSR) audit of the Council’s Building Control function, which had been requested by the Corporate Director (Finance & IT) and Section 151 Officer and the Corporate Governance, Performance and Procurement Manager.

It was reported that this was the first ever BSR review completed and that Tendring District Council had no outstanding matters to address.

The Committee heard that in December 2024 Tendring District Council had been advised that the BSR would be undertaking an audit of its building control services. That had been the Council’s first audit following the creation of the BSR and Tendring District Council was one of many authorities being reviewed.  Tendring District Council was required to operate in accordance with the Building Act and Operational Standards Rules (OSRs), which set out the minimum performance standards expected. All authorities would be subject to ongoing monitoring and have at least one inspection over a five-year period.

The inspection of services had been carried out via online interviews and requests of information on the processes, including samples of work.  Those inspections had mainly occurred during April, May and June 2025. 

It was reported that the official BSR Letter of Contravention had been received on the 29 October 2025.  That letter had detailed their findings and recommendations for action and were summarised as follows:

-       Policies, procedures, and processes were not fully documented. There was no documented approach for allocating work based on building types and Registered Building Inspector (RBI) registration. Lack of documented procedures for supervising RBIs working outside their registration class and for statutory consultations. Gaps in arrangements for monitoring and managing building control projects, including scheduling and delivery of inspections. No documented criteria for prioritising, timing, or reviewing caseloads. 1,291 open projects with outstanding completion certificates and no follow-up.

-       Insufficient resourcing, including a lack of comprehensive assessment of RBI resource requirements. No effective controls for ensuring RBIs act within their competence and registration. Gaps in record-keeping for statutory consultations. Unclear governance and oversight, particularly regarding terms of engagement and outsourced service providers (e.g., Babergh Mid Suffolk District Council). No assurance that outsourced providers comply with OSRs and legal requirements.

-       Unawareness of the duty to inform statutory consultees of decisions and reasons for accepting or declining recommendations.

It was further reported that to resolve those points the letter had instructed Tendring District Council to implement an operational manual, resource the building control function adequately, improve record-keeping and controls for statutory consultations and ensure all statutory requirements were met, and strengthen governance regarding outsourced services.

The Head of Planning and Building Control had noted that the wording used in the BSR’s Contravention was unhelpful, as closer examination often revealed that a single, typically minor, issue could relate to multiple BSR standards.

Procedure Documentation

It was noted that, although Building Control had followed the correct processes, not all procedures had been formally documented, and certain requirements were only clarified  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

To present to the Committee the progress on outstanding actions identified by the Committee along with general updates on other issues that fall within the responsibilities of the Committee.

Members heard that the Table of Outstanding Issues was maintained and reported to each meeting of the Audit Committee. That approach had enabled the Committee to effectively monitor progress on issues and items that formed part of its governance responsibilities.

There were three main ongoing elements to the report (A.4) highlighted as follows:

1)    Updates against general items raised by the Committee – Appendix A

2)    Updates against the 2024/25 Annual Governance Statement Action Plan – Appendix B

3)    Updates against recommendations made by the External Auditor – Appendix C

In terms of item 1 and 3, there were no significant issues to raise, with actions remaining in progress or further details set out below.

In respect of the 2024/25 Annual Governance Statement Action Plan, although this remained subject to the Committee’s final approval, for timely and practical reasons the current version that had been published at the end of June 2025 alongside the Unaudited Statement of Accounts presented the most up to date position for the Committee’s consideration. Similarly to last year, that approach had enabled the actions and associated updates to be considered as early as possible within the Committee’s annual work programme. Appendix B, attached to the A.4 report, had therefore included outstanding items from last year’s Annual Governance Statement alongside new items for the current year. There were no significant issues to highlight with actions and activities remaining ongoing.

Local Audit Reform

Members were informed that, following the more detailed update at the last meeting of the Committee, the Government had continued to work through the various associated steps to establish the Local Audit Office, as part of enacting the English Devolution and Empowerment Bill. Further updates would be provided as necessary later in the year.

RIPA – Regulatory Investigatory Powers Act 2000

It was highlighted that no activity had been conducted under RIPA by the Authority in the last quarter and it was rare that it would be required to do so.

Whistleblowing

It was further highlighted that at its meeting in September 2025, the Committee had been informed that the Authority had received two notifications of Whistleblowing. The outcome for those two notifications after exploration was that no further action was required and the notifications had been closed. There had been no further notifications since then. Those updates were given as part of the monitoring arrangements in line with the adopted policy of July 2023.

It was moved by Councillor Fairley, seconded by Councillor Sudra and RESOLVED that:

(a)  the progress against the actions as set out in Appendices A, B and C to the A.4 Report be noted; and

(b)  the Committee recommends to Full Council that, at its meeting due to be held on 31 March 2026, and following a recruitment and interview process, Mrs Sue Gallone be appointed as the Independent Person for the Audit Committee.