Agenda and minutes
Venue: To be held remotely via video conferencing facilities (Microsoft TeamsLive)
Contact: Christine Brain: Democratic Services Officer (Scrutiny)
Email: christine.brain@westsuffolk.gov.uk
Note: This will be a non-decision making virtual meeting of the Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committee.
Media
Items
No. |
Item |
47. |
Substitutes
Any member who is substituting for another
member should so indicate, together with the name of the relevant
absent member.
Minutes:
No substitutions were declared.
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48. |
Apologies for absence
Minutes:
Apologies for absence were received from
Councillor John Smith.
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49. |
Minutes PDF 141 KB
To review and note any amendments to the
minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2021 (copy attached).
Minutes:
The minutes of the meeting held on 28 January
2021 were noted as a correct record and would formally be voted on
at its meeting on 29 July 2021.
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50. |
Declarations of interest
Members are reminded
of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary or local non
pecuniary interest which they have in any item of business on the
agenda no later than when that item is reached and, when
appropriate, to leave the meeting prior to discussion and voting on
the item.
Minutes:
Members’ declarations of interest are
recorded under the item to which the declaration relates.
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51. |
Public participation
Members of the public who live or work in the
district are welcome to speak and may ask one question or make a
statement of not more than three minutes duration relating to items
to be discussed in Part 1 of the agenda only. If a question is asked and answered within three
minutes, the person who asked the question may ask a supplementary
question that arises from the reply.
As this meeting is being held virtually and to
allow persons sufficient time to be briefed on procedures
accordingly, a person who wishes to speak must register by 9am
on the last working day before the meeting (Wednesday 26 May
2021).
There is an overall limit of 15 minutes for
public speaking, which may be extended at the Chair’s
discretion.
Minutes:
No members of the public had registered to
speak.
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52. |
Ernst and Young - Presentation of External Audit Plan and Fees (2020-2021) PDF 136 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/21/005
Additional documents:
Minutes:
[Councillor Peter Thompson
joined the meeting at 5.07pm during the consideration of this
item].
The Committees received Report
No: PAS/WS/21/005, from EY, the council’s appointed external
auditors, who were required to provide an audit plan, attached at
Appendix A, which covered the work they planned to perform in order
to provide the Council with:
-
An opinion on whether the financial statements of
the Council gave a true and fair view of the financial position as
at 31 March 2021 and of the income and
expenditure for the year then ended; and
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A conclusion on the Council’s arrangements to
secure economy, efficiency and
effectiveness (value for money).
Mark Hodgson, Associate Partner
from EY presented the report, which summarised EY’s
assessment of the key risks which drive the development of an
effective audit for the Council and outlined their planned audit
strategy in response to those risks.
Officers would be working with EY over the coming months to ensure
that these risks were managed and where possible to come to an
agreement over their treatment prior to issuing of the Annual
Results Report, and Audit Opinion.
He drew Members’
attention to the summary of audit risks set out on pages; pages 15
– 17 relating to new Covid-19 grant income, omission or understatement of NDR appeals
provisions; group account consolidation; collection fund accounting
and recoverability receivables (bad debt provision); page 18
relating to the materiality level which remained the same as last
year at £1.991m and would be updated in July/August 2021 and
pages 31 to 33 relating to value for money. The main change to the value for money conclusion
was that EY would only need to report by exception.
It was reported that the
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government had put in
place the Accounts and Audit (Amendments) Regulations 2021, that
extend the statutory deadlines for the accounts relating to the
financial years 2020 to 2021, and 2021 to 2022. Draft accounts needed to be prepared by 31 July
instead of 31 May and the publication of the audited accounts moved
from 31 July to 30 September.
Due to resourcing issues
throughout the sector as well as the increased complexity around
local authority accounts work, EY would not be in a position to
issue the Audit Results Report by the end of September. Instead, they had set out a provision phasing plan
to ensure that they were able to deliver both the 2020 to 2021
statement of accounts work and the housing benefits subsidy work
they were responsible for. It was
expected that the Audit Results Report would be presented to the
Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committee in November
2021.
The Committee considered the
report and asked questions to which responses were
provided. In particular members sought
clarification on the risks associated with “incorrect
capitalisation of revenue expenditure” set out on page 15 of
the report and “omission or understatement of NDR appeals
provisions” on page 16 to which Mark Hodgson provided
responses.
There being no ...
view the full minutes text for item 52.
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53. |
Internal Audit Annual Audit Report (2020-2021) PDF 120 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/21/006
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Service Manager (Internal Audit) presented
Report No: PAS/WS/21/006 which provided members with an overview of
the work carried out by Internal Audit for the year ending 31 March
2021.
The annual audit opinion, attached at Appendix
A to the report, had been split into the four constituent elements
of governance, risk, internal control
and financial control with a specific conclusion drawn on each area
as well as the direction of travel.
The council recognised that fraud,
theft and corruption were an
ever-present threat to the resources available in the public
sector. Appendix B attached to the
report demonstrated West Suffolk’s progress in developing and
maintaining an anti-fraud and anti-corruption culture and
publicised the action taken where fraud or misconduct had been
identified.
As a result of Covid-19, less
‘direct’ audit assurance work was carried out within
the period than would normally be the case. However, the majority of the priority 1 and some
of the priority 2 work included in the approved audit plan were
completed as well as other significant work as set out in Appendix
A. In response to a question raised
regarding this, the Service Manager (Internal Audit) explained that
any audits included within the 2020-21 audit plan, but not
completed, had been considered for inclusion in the 2021-22 plan of
work and included in that plan of work if this was deemed
appropriate, based on a consideration of current risks.
The Service Manager (Internal Audit) then drew
relevant issues to Members’ attention. In particular that audit opinions given to
individual audits were all either good assurance or reasonable
assurance as set out on pages 65
– 66 of Appendix A.
The
Committee considered the report and asked questions to which
responses were provided.
In response
to a question raised regarding the reopening of the “high
street fund” set out on page 69 of the report, and whether
this was the same as the new “welcome back fund”,
officers explained that they were not the same and that there were
a number of different business funds currently in progress and
being discussed with stakeholders.
There being no decision required, the
Committee noted the Internal Audit Annual Report
2020-2021, attached at Appendix A and the Annual Fraud Report
2020-2021, attached at Appendix B to Report No: PAS/WS/21/006.
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54. |
Outline Internal Audit Plan (2021-2022) PDF 134 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/21/007
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Service Manager (Internal Audit) presented
Report No: PAS/WS/21/007, which provided members with a proposed
2021-2022 Audit Plan, attached at Appendix B. Attached at Appendix A to the report was the
covering Internal Audit Plan Report.
The proposed Audit Plan was a risk based plan
of work for the internal audit team, which took into account the
need to produce an annual internal opinion for the council which
concludes on the overall adequacy and effectiveness of the
council’s framework of governance, risk management and
internal control.
It was important that the audit
plan was flexible and able to adapt to changing risks facing the
council, thereby ensuring that audit resources were used where they
would add maximum value. During the
year, specific audits might therefore need to be taken out of the
plan or added in, according to changing circumstances.
The Service Manager (Internal Audit) drew
relevant issues to Members’ attention.
The
Committee considered the report and in particular discussed Brexit
and whether this had an impact on audits. In response the Service Manager (Internal Audit)
explained that the council was still working through the
implications of Brexit but did not envisage this would have a
significant impact on the council’s audit work.
The
Committee endorsed the Outline Internal Audit Plan for
2021-2022 for formal adoption at its meeting on 29 July
2021.
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55. |
2020-2021 Performance Report (Quarter 4) PDF 370 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/21/008
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Service Manager (Resources
and Performance) presented Report number: PAS/WS/21/008, which set
out the impact of Covid-19 and the Quarter 4 performance and
financial outturn summary for the year ending 31 March
2021.
The Service Manager (Resources and
Performance) set out the key headlines for the outturn position and
referred to page 105 of the report, which showed the outturn
position for the year 2020-2021. The position had improved
from the previous position reported in Quarter 3. Funding of
additional Covid-19 related costs had been achieved through the
work of the council, utilising existing budgets, delivery of
Covid-19 related initiatives with existing resources and external
grants. This meant the year end position showed these
variances to reduce to an overall impact of £1,359,000.
The deficit would be funded largely from the previously agreed use
of the in-year 2020 to 2021 New Homes Bonus allocation which was
previously allocated to support strategic projects. The net
deficit balance of £159,000 would then be funded from the
council’s general fund balance as the council closed the
final accounts for 2020-2021.
The Service Manager (Resources and
Performance) then referred to page 106 of the report, which set out
a graphical representation on how Covid-19 had impacted the council
over the year. The second graph showed
the council’s income had reduced by £8.6m, with
increased costs of £3.6m giving an overall impact of
£12.2m on the council’s finances over the
year. The first graph showed how the
impact had been mitigated and reduced the overall impact by
£159k. The majority of which had
been achieved from central government grants to cover some of the
shortfalls and costs incurred, and the use of the New Homes Bonus
and in-year efficiencies.
From a financial perspective, the council had
spent £31.9m of its capital budget, out of a total of
£83.6m for the year on Barley Homes and the Mildenhall Hub
projects. The difference was due to the
phasing of some of the capital projects, for example the Western
Way Development, which had been carried forward into 2021-2022, and
some of the invest for growth funds which had also been carried
forward.
The earmarked reserves position at the end of
the year was £37.6m, which had improved from where the
council thought it would be by the end of the year. This was primarily due to the net
under-utilisation of underspends on fleet phasing in terms of
what’s spent on vehicle replacements. As the council had not borrowed externally in the
year this had meant the council did not have to fund as much as
originally expected.
Attached to the Quarter 4
report were a number of appendices which set out in more detail the
performance indicators and financial outturn for 2020-2021, as
follows:
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Appendix A: Performance Indicators –
Commentary
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Appendix B: Performance Indicators –
Growth
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Appendix C: Performance Indicators – Families
and Communities
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Appendix D: Performance Indicators –
Housing
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Appendix E: Performance Indicators – Day to
Day
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Appendix F: Income and ...
view the full minutes text for item 55.
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56. |
Health and Safety Summary Report 2020-2021 PDF 114 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/21/009
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Service Manager (Health and Safety)
presented Report No: PAS/WS/21/009, which summarised
the work carried out by the Health and Safety Sub-Committee during
2020-2021.
The summary report attached at
Appendix A was produced to identify and document West Suffolk
Council’s health and safety performance and work carried out
during the year to ensure legal compliance.
The Committee considered the
report and asked questions. In
particular discussions were held on whether incidents and accidents
had increased during 2020-2021 due to Covid-19. In response the Service Manager (Health and
Safety) explained that Covid-19 and not had an effect on the
reporting of incidents and accidents, which had stayed the same
when compared to previous reporting periods.
There being no decision required, the
Committee noted the Health and Safety Summary Report
2020-2021.
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57. |
Annual Appointments to the Financial Resilience Sub-Committee and the Health and Safety Sub-Committee PDF 149 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/21/010
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Monitoring Officer presented report
number: PAS/WS/21/010, which sought annual reappointments to the
Financial Resilience Sub-Committee and the Health and Safety Sub-
Committee.
The Constitution sets out that appointment of
members to the Financial Resilience Sub-Committee and the Health
and Safety Sub-Committee be undertaken at the first meeting of the
Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committee, following Annual Council
or following a review of the allocation of seats on committees
during the year.
Attached at Appendix 1 and Appendix 2 to the
report were the terms of reference for
the Financial Resilience Sub-Committee and the Health and Safety
Sub-Committee.
The Committee was asked to:
1)
Recommend three members and one substitute member from the members
of the Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committee to sit on the
Financial Resilience Sub-Committee for the remainder of 2021-2022;
and
2)
Recommend six members and two substitute members from the members
of the Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committee to sit on the
Health and Safety Sub-Committee for the remainder of 2021-2022;
and
3)
Note that formal approval of the membership will occur at its
meeting on 29 July 2021.
In considering the Conservative nominations
for the Health and Safety Sub-Committee, the Monitoring Officer
agreed to seek members and substitute members, following the
meeting, with the Group Leader, which would then be brought back to
the Committee on 29 July for formal approval.
At the conclusion of the discussions the
following nominations were put forward as follows:
Financial Resilience Sub-Committee
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Councillors Ian Houlder and Elaine McManus (Conservative Group)
wished to continue to serve as full members on the
Sub-Committee.
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Councillor Victor Lukaniuk (The Independent Group) wished to
continue to serve as a full member on the Sub-Committee
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Councillor Robert Nobbs (Conservative Group) wished to continue to
serve as the substitute on the Sub-Committee.
Health and Safety Sub-Committee
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Councillor Cliff Waterman (Labour Group) wished to continue to
serve as a full member on the Sub-Committee
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The Monitoring Officer agreed to speak with the Leader of the
Independent Group to see if Councillor John Smith wished to
continue as a full member.
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Councillor Robert Nobbs (Conservative Group) wished
to continue as a full member on the Sub-Committee. Councillor Elaine McManus wished to sit as a full
member on the Sub-Committee to replace Councillor Karen
Richardson. The Monitoring Officer
agreed to seek two further full members, following the meeting with
the Group Leader.
-
The Monitoring Officer agreed to seek one substitute (Conservative
Group) and one substitute (Independent Group) following the meeting
with the relevant Group Leaders.
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58. |
Work programme update PDF 114 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/21/011
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Committee received report number:
PAS/WS/21/011, which updated members on the current status of its
rolling work programme of items for scrutiny during 2021 to 2021
(Appendix 1).
There Committee considered the report and
there being no decision required, the Committee noted the update.
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In this section
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