Agenda and minutes

When the continuous alarm sounds you must evacuate the building by the nearest available fire exit. Members and visitors should proceed to the visitors’ car park at the front of the building and await further instructions (staff should proceed to their usual assembly point). Please do not re-enter the building unless instructed to do so.

In the event of a fire any person with a disability should be assisted in leaving the building.

19.1           The evacuation procedure, as noted on the Agenda, was taken as read.  

19.2           The Chair welcomed the Engagement Manager from Grant Thornton to the meeting.

20.1           An apology for absence was received from Councillor P A Godwin. There were no substitutions for the meeting.  

21.1           The Committee’s attention was drawn to the Tewkesbury Borough Council Code of Conduct which was adopted by the Council on 26 June 2012 and took effect from 1 July 2012.

21.2           There were no declarations made on this occasion.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting held on 18 July 2018.

22.1           The Minutes of the meeting held on 18 July 2018, copies of which had been circulated, were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair, subject to an amendment at Minute AUD.9.3 to make it clear that the conclusion on the Council’s value for money arrangements was an ‘except for’ conclusion rather than ‘acceptable’.   

To consider the Audit Committee Work Programme.  

23.1           Attention was drawn to the Audit Committee Work Programme, circulated at Pages No. 14-21, which Members were asked to consider.  

23.2           The Head of Corporate Services explained that the Counter Fraud Unit had undertaken some partnership working with the serious crime authority to develop an organised crime action plan and checklist which would be considered by the Committee at its meeting in December. Part of the checklist would look at how good the Council’s control environment was in terms of combating serious crime. He also confirmed that, at its meeting in March 2019, the Council would receive an update on the progress made in implementing recommendations arising from the independent review of internal audit.

23.3           In response to a query regarding the possible renaming of the Committee, the Head of Corporate Services confirmed that this would be considered as part of the Constitution review which it was anticipated would be complete by the end of the year.

23.4           Accordingly, it was

                  RESOLVED          That the Audit Committee Work Programme be NOTED.

To consider the external auditor’s annual audit letter 2017/18. 

24.1           Attention was drawn to Grant Thornton’s Annual Audit Letter 2017/18, circulated at Pages No. 22-32. Members were asked to consider the report.

24.2           The Engagement Manager from Grant Thornton explained that the Annual Audit Letter summarised the key findings from the work which had been carried out for the year ended March 2018. The Letter was intended to provide the commentary on the results of the external audit work on the Council and external stakeholders and to highlight the issues it wished to draw to the attention of the public. The audit had been carried out in accordance with the National Audit Office Code of Audit Practice. In terms of the key conclusions, the Grant Thornton Engagement Manager confirmed that the Council had the proper arrangements in place to ensure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the use of resources except for the matter identified in relation to the authority’s development of a robust savings plan in order to balance its budgets with sufficient capacity to manage its emerging cost pressures over the duration of the Medium Term Financial Strategy; this meant the Council had been issued an ‘except for’ conclusion in respect of its value for money arrangements. The work to certify the Council’s housing benefit subsidy claim was not yet complete but would be finalised by 30 November 2018 and the results of that would be reported to the Committee as part of the Annual Certification Letter in December. The Annual Audit Letter certified the completion of the audit of the Council’s accounts.

24.3           During the discussion which ensued, a Member questioned how the Council would address the ‘except for’ conclusion on its value for money arrangements. In response, the Head of Finance and Asset Management explained that the Transform Working Group would be considering the Medium Term Financial Strategy and, thereafter, the Council’s budget. He was planning that this would be considered on a rolling two year programme to get ahead of the cycle and enable the Council to provide the external auditor’s with the information required for the value for money conclusion at the right time. In respect of the ‘except for’ conclusion, the Grant Thornton Engagement Manager explained that Grant Thornton looked after around 40% of the local government market and an increasing number of local authorities were in a similar position to Tewkesbury Borough Council; however, she was pleased that Officers had a plan to address it.

24.4           Accordingly, it was

RESOLVED          That the Grant Thornton Annual Audit Letter 2017/18 be NOTED.

To consider the Council’s health and safety report.

25.1           The report of the Head of Community Services, circulated at Pages No. 33-50, set out a summary of the activities carried out to secure health and safety compliance in the financial year 2017/18. Members were asked to consider the Council’s health and safety report.   

25.2           The Committee was advised that the health and safety report was presented on an annual basis. The Council’s health and safety management system included the key elements of the Health and Safety Executive’s guidance document HSG65; a review of the checklist, which scored against the management system, was completed twice a year and the overall score in 2017 was 81% whereas, for this year, the score had increased to 90% and through the action plan it was anticipated that the Council could improve even further. Referring to Page No. 46, a Member noted that 40 accidents/incidents had been reported and she questioned whether this was considered to be a high number. In response, the Environmental Safety Officer explained that the number had reduced each quarter and the Environmental Health Manager confirmed that the reporting of incidents and near misses was vastly improving which meant issues that arose could be acted upon and rectified to stop them reoccurring. This was also reflected in Ubico’s accident/incident statistics whereby the reporting had improved and the number of actual incidents had declined.

25.3           A Member referred to incidents involving refuse lorries and questioned whether there was a need for the widening of roads to be discussed with Planning colleagues. In response, the Environmental Health Manager explained that there was always a need for Environmental Health to input to the planning process but this was across the service rather than just refuse collection i.e. depot, grounds maintenance and street cleansing. He also offered reassurance that each near miss was recorded and, as a result, an action was generated to prompt the reassessment of rounds etc. Another Member questioned whether near misses by contractors were also reported and acted upon by the Council. In response, the Environmental Health Manager advised that, in respect of the Joint Waste Partnership, the Joint Waste Team monitored the day to day operational business but the Council maintained a responsibility to ensure all issues were picked up and acted upon. Members expressed concern about the number of near misses and accidents/incidents which were being recorded and the Environmental Safety Officer sought to offer reassurance that that this was due to improved monitoring and the extensive amount of work Officers had done with Ubico to get to that position. The whole purpose of reporting was to understand what near misses were being experienced and allow analysis so that action could be taken to prevent accidents. In addition, the Head of Corporate Services confirmed that there were a number of days in the Internal Audit Plan to assess Ubico’s health and safety arrangements so Members could be assured that Internal Audit would be looking at it and a report would be submitted to the Committee in due  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

To consider the Internal Audit work undertaken and the assurance given on the adequacy of internal controls operating in the systems audited.

26.1           The report of the Head of Corporate Services, circulated at Pages No. 51-66, provided the Committee with the findings of the individual audit assignments undertaken for the period April to August 2018 along with the status of internal audit recommendations followed-up in quarter two. Members were asked to consider the audit work completed and the assurance given on the adequacy of the internal controls operating in the systems audited.

26.2           The Head of Corporate Services explained that Appendix 1 set out the audit opinion for each individual audit assignment completed. Appendix 2 provided details of previous audit recommendations that had been followed-up and, using a red, amber, green (RAG) system, identified whether the recommendations had been implemented or not. He also clarified that all recommendations which were due for follow-up had been followed-up. The information had been provided in a new format which had been developed following a discussion with Members via a Member workshop; it was felt the Internal Audit process now gave a clearer focus on risk which had been a recommendation from the Internal Audit peer review. It also clearly set out the recommendations, priorities and implementation dates.

26.3           In terms of the garden waste audit, the Head of Corporate Services explained that it had resulted in two ‘limited’ opinions and two ‘satisfactory’ opinions but he was keen that this did not detract from the successful implementation of the project; lessons learnt would be taken forward and it was expected that the income would amount to around £800,000 by the end of the current year. In terms of the limited opinion, Members were advised that this was due to the fact that the collection and storage of customers’ data did not comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as there was no retention schedule in place and a data sharing agreement was required between the Council and Ubico; this would be complete by October 2018. In addition, there were a couple of operational issues relating to stock control and the emptying of bins that were not displaying stickers and therefore were not members of the scheme. In terms of stock control, the issue was that the stickers held in stock were of monetary value and therefore should be securely held and a stock control system in place – this had now been rectified. In terms of operational issues, the collection of bins had been tested by putting unstickered bins in ten locations across the Borough; unfortunately, in five out of ten cases, the unstickered bin was emptied which showed there was work to do with Ubico to ensure crews understood they should not collect bins with no stickers. There was also a need for improved reconciliation against the ledger and a proper refund process to be established. In terms of fees, this was delegated to Officers and would be considered through the budget setting process with consideration of evidence to show the justification for any increases. Moving forward ownership of the service needed to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

To approve the Internal Audit Six Month Plan 2018/19 (October 2018-March 2019).

27.1           The report of the Head of Corporate Services, circulated at Pages No. 67-73, set out the Internal Audit Six Month Plan 2018/19 which Members were asked to approve.

27.2           The Head of Corporate Services explained that the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards Ref 2010 (Planning) required that the Chief Audit Executive be responsible for development of a risk based plan. Ref 2030 (Resource Management) required that the Chief Audit Executive also ensured internal audit resources were appropriate, sufficient and effectively deployed to achieve the plan. In November 2017, an external assessment of internal audit activity had been undertaken and recommendations made to improve the internal audit process. A workshop had been held with Audit Committee Members to consider those recommendations and the action plan in detail and, as part of the implementation of that plan, the Members at the workshop had agreed to the development of a six-month audit plan. The setting of the six-monthly plan enabled a more flexible approach to be undertaken to audit planning, rather than a more rigid annual plan, which recognised the changing environment in which the Council operated.

27.3           The first six-month plan (April to September) had been agreed by the Committee in March 2018 and the status of those planned audits was set out at Appendix 2 to the report. A number of audits were in progress at the time of writing the report but would be completed by the end of the period. There would be an outstanding audit in relation to ICT and a draft risk assessment for that service had been undertaken which, when finalised in October, would help inform the areas to be audited; days would be carried forward to the second half of the plan to address this. Based on the work in the first six months, 15 days of audit work would be taken forward to the proposed plan for October to March. During that plan period, set out at Appendix 1 to the report, it was intended that audits would be undertaken on the General Data Protection Regulation; the project management framework; the serious crime framework; the National Non Domestic Rates (NNDR) subsidy claim; Ubico client monitoring; ICT; Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy payments; and Ubico health and safety. Days were also set aside for Internal Audit quality assurance and improvement; consultancy and advice and follow-up reviews.

27.4           The Head of Corporate Services explained that a thought he had for the future was the introduction of audit days for ‘Member choices’ with the idea that Members could ask the Internal Audit team to look at certain areas; he would need to consider carefully how this could be managed before he was able to understand whether it was a realistic option but he undertook to update Members in due course.

27.5           Accordingly, it was

                  RESOLVED          That the Internal Audit Six Month Plan 2018/19 (October-                                   March), as detailed at Appendix 1 to the report, be                                                   APPROVED.