Agenda item

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.

The Committee was presented with a report on the progress of outstanding actions previously identified by the Committee along with general updates on other issues that fell within the responsibilities of the Committee. The Table of Outstanding Issues had been reviewed and updated since it had been last considered by the Committee in July 2023.

There were currently two main elements to this report as follows:

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

2) Updates against the 2023 Annual Governance Statement Action Plan (Appendix B)

Members heard that in terms of item 1) above, there were no significant issues to raise, with actions remaining in progress or further details set out in the report.  In terms of item 2), this set out the latest Annual Governance Statement published as part of the Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2022/23 on 1 August 2023.  Activity would remain in progress against the various items, which would be reported to Members as part of this report going forward.

Continuing External Audit delays and an update on the External Auditor’s work on the Council’s Statement of Accounts 2020/21

Members were advised that, following discussions at the last Audit Committee relating to the completion of the External Auditor’s work on the Council’s 2020/21 Accounts, a further update was planned to be provided by the External Auditor directly at this meeting. 

In respect of the ongoing audit delays, it was reported that the Government’s response had been set out in the Monitoring Officer’s Section 5 report, considered by Full Council at its meeting held on 26 September 2023. An associated Member question to, and response from, the Chairman of the Audit Committee had also been raised at that same meeting of Full Council. Those had set out more details around the Government’s response, which revolved around introducing statutory deadlines, by which time the accounts relating to outstanding years must be finalised.  The Chairman of the Audit Committee had also stressed the importance of the Council’s current external auditors having a focus on the 2022/23 accounts which had been a point also acknowledged by the Government and the Financial Reporting Council.  It was now important to obtain from the Council’s external auditors their own response to the Government’s recent announcements and their assurances around meeting the proposed statutory deadlines which, hopefully would see them focus on the 2022/23 statement of accounts as soon as possible.

Steve Bladen from BDO LLP, the Council’s external auditor attended the meeting via MS Teams and informed the Committee that there had been no progress made on the work outstanding on this Council’s 2020/2021 accounts. This was due to a combination of resource issues and a decision to prioritise outstanding NHS audits. This would mean that this Council’s audit would not be progressed much before the end of the calendar year.

Mr Bladen referred to the wider national issue revolving around the outstanding local government audits and stated that the National Audit Office was leading and working with all the audit providers nationally in implementing the Government’s approach to solving this issue.

Members asked Mr Bladen robust questions that challenged several key points, being summarised as follows:-

·      the prioritisation of NHS audits over local government audits;

·      BDO’s position on meeting the Government’s imposed cut-off dates;

·      how and when BDO would resolve the outstanding matters around the valuing of Council property (based on floor plans); material infrastructure assets (notably coastal defences); and the evidence provided by an external civil engineer on behalf of the Council (and notably the robustness and qualifications of that civil engineer);

·      what assurances could BDO give Members of the Council and Council Tax payers that the Council’s finances were robust.

RIPA – Regulatory Investigatory Powers Act 2000

This Authority had not conducted any RIPA activity in the last quarter and it was rare that it would be required to do so.

Whistleblowing

This Authority had not received any Whistleblowing information since the adoption of the Whistleblowing Policy in July 2023.  As part of the monitoring arrangements associated with the effectiveness of this policy, relevant updates would be provided to this Committee during the year.

Redmond Review

As further progress was announced by the Government, updates would be provided to future meetings of this Committee, which would hopefully set out the necessary practical steps to implement the recommendations made as part of this review.  At the time of this meeting, no updates were available.

Changes to Regulatory Arrangements

The Committee was informed that there had been two recent changes that would have an impact on this Council with a summary as follows:

1) The Government had established the Office for Local Government (OFLOG), a performance body for Local Government.  They had proposed a number of activities with the aim of fostering accountability through increased transparency, which in turn aimed to support the improvement of Local Government performance.

The Government had also stated that as OFLOG developed, it would seek to enable improvement across the sector by helping facilitate greater use of interpretation of data, and in its mature state it aspired to be an authoritative source of information on Local Government performance, that could support others to interpret performance data and take action on it – particularly where the data showed early warning signs of failure.

OFLOG had stated that their strategic objectives were as follows:

·      empower citizens with information about their local authority, enabling them to hold local leaders to account;

·      increase local leaders’ and councils’ understanding of their relative performance, supporting them to improve and better innovate; and

·      increase central government’s understanding of local government performance, highlighting excellence and identifying risk of failure to facilitate timely and targeted support.

2) Enhanced Powers for the Regulator of Social Housing – the Social Housing Regulation Act had received Royal Assent earlier in the year, which would see a new era of regulation for the social housing sector, with some key elements as follows:

·      Enhanced powers for the Regulator of Social Housing - The Act would facilitate the introduction of proactive consumer regulation by strengthening the Regulator of Social Housing, allowing intervention in cases where landlords were performing poorly on consumer issues. This would enable the Regulator to take action to address any shortcomings and protect tenants.

·      Stronger enforcement powers - The Act established stronger enforcement powers for the Regulator to take action including provisions for regular inspections of social housing properties to ensure landlords were providing high-quality services and accommodation. Those inspections would help maintain and improve the standard of housing for tenants across the country.

·      Tenant empowerment - The Act would establish strict time limits for social landlords to address hazards and empowered social housing tenants to request information from their landlords, promoting transparency and accountability. This would ensure tenants had the right to access crucial information about their homes and could access swift redress where things go wrong.

·      Standards for Registered Providers - The Act had introduced a set of standards for registered housing providers, requiring social housing managers to possess specific qualifications or be actively working towards gaining them. Those standards would help ensure residents received the best possible service from their housing associations.

The Committee was advised that Council would need to explore those new requirements, their impact on this Council and the actions required to be undertaken in response to the above.  In respect of the Housing Regulator’s powers, work was already underway along with further planned work that would include external consultation and review along with the development of associated action plans.  Further updates would be provided to Members as part of that ongoing work.

Other matters to highlight

Members were made aware that, following the Committee’s consideration of the Corporate Risk Register at its meeting held in July 2023, the next six monthly update would be in January 2024.  This changed the six monthly cycle that had been set out in the Committee’s earlier work programme.

After a detailed debate, it was moved by Councillor Fairley, seconded by Councillor Sudraand:-

RESOLVED that the progress against the actions set out in Appendices A andB to the Report of the Assistant Director (Finance & IT) be noted.