Agenda and minutes
Venue: To be held remotely via video conferencing facilities (Microsoft TeamsLive)
Contact: Christine Brain: Democratic Services Officer
Email: christine.brain@westsuffolk.gov.uk
Note: The link to view the live stream of the meeting is shown in 'Media' below together with a supporting guidance document
Media
Items
No. |
Item |
22. |
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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23. |
Apologies for absence
Minutes:
Apologies for absence were received from
Councillor Cliff Waterman.
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24. |
Minutes PDF 146 KB
To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on
30 July 2020 (copy attached.)
Minutes:
The minutes of the meeting held on 30 July
2020 were confirmed as a correct record by the Chair.
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25. |
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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26. |
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 (18 November
2020).
There is an overall limit of 15 minutes for
public speaking, which may be extended at the Chair’s
discretion.
Minutes:
There were no members of the public in
attendance on this occasion.
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27. |
Ernst and Young - 2019-2020 Annual Results Report to those Charged with Governance PDF 128 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/20/014
Additional documents:
Minutes:
[Councillor Karen Richardson joined the
meeting at 5.15pm during the consideration of this item, and prior
to the vote being taken].
The Committee received Report number
PAS/WS/20/014, which presented the results from Ernst and
Young’s (EY) audit of the 2019-2020 financial statements for
West Suffolk Council. The report set
out issues they were formally required to report on to those
charged with governance. EY were also
required to report on the results of the work undertaken to assess
the council’s arrangements to secure value for money (VFM) in
the use of its resources.
The councils’ unaudited 2019 to 2020
Statement of Accounts, signed by the Chief Finance Officer (Section
151 Officer) on 9 July 2020, had been updated to reflect
adjustments recommended by EY over this period as a result of their
audit work. Members were informed that
these adjustments did not affect the councils’ overall
financial position and were in most cases merely presentational
changes.
At the time of writing the report, it was not
anticipated that there would be any significant issues with the
accounts and the auditor expected to issue an unqualified opinion
on the financial statements for 2019 to 2020.
A copy of the Audit Results Reports dated 5
November 2020, attached at Appendix A to the report was presented
to the Committee by Mark Hodgson (Associate Partner). Attached at Appendix B to the report was West
Suffolk Council’s Letter of Representation, on behalf of the
Council in accordance with the audit of the financial statements
for West Suffolk Council for the year ended 31 March
2020. EY had also now issued their
final fee letter (Appendix C) in relation to the audit of the 2018
to 2019 financial statements. It was a
requirement that the letter was presented to the committee in order
to complete the formal reporting process.
Mark Hodgson presented the report and
explained that the results report should be taken in the context of
the impact of Covid-19, namely that the draft financial statements
had wholly been produced during lockdown, and the whole of the
audit had to be conducted remotely.
There had been additional financial reporting considerations as a
result of Covid-19 and therefore, additional audit procedures were
required. The overall message was that
the Committee could take a lot of assurance from the report and
from EY’s findings. He then drew
the Committee’s attention to the following key matters:
1)
Page 18 (Changes in materiality) – EY was working towards an
overall materiality assessment of £1.98m.
2)
Page 19 (Status of the audit) – property, plant and equipment
valuations: EY’s valuers had now reported and EY had four
audit queries with officers which were or were about to be
responded too, which EY needed to conclude on.
3)
Page 19 (Status of the audit) – Pensions liability – EY
had now received the necessary assurances from the Suffolk Pension
Fund auditor, and that had raised 3 factors which needed to be
taken into account:
-
McCloud judgment – In July ...
view the full minutes text for item 27.
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28. |
West Suffolk Annual Governance Statement 2019-2020 PDF 118 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/20/015
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Committee received Report number
PAS/WS/20/015, which sought members approval of the draft West
Suffolk Annual Governance Statement for 2019-2020, attached as
Appendix A.
The Annual Governance Statement provided
stakeholders with assurance that the Council had operated within
the law and that they had met the requirements of the Accounts and
Audit Regulations 2015 and the Accounts and Audit (Coronavirus)
(Amendment) Regulations 2020. The
Annual Governance Statement accompanied the Statement of
Accounts.
The draft Annual Governance Statement had been
prepared by the Officer Governance Group and was West Suffolk
Council’s first annual governance statement.
The Assistant Director (Resources and
Performance) drew the Committee’s attention to the review of
the effectiveness of the governance framework for 2019-2020, which
concluded that arrangements continued to be regarded fit for
purpose in accordance with the governance framework. Similar to last year, the Council had not raised
any significant governance issues to disclose within the annual
governance statement.
The Committee was asked to review and approve
the draft Annual Governance Statement 2019-2020 prior to it being
signed by the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council.
The Committee considered the draft West
Suffolk Annual Governance Statement for 2019-2020 and did not raise
any issues.
Councillor Victor Lukaniuk then moved the
recommendation, this was duly seconded by Councillor Phil Wittam,
and with the vote being unanimous, it was:
RESOLVED
That the draft West
Suffolk Annual Governance Statement 2019-2020, attached as Appendix
A to Report number PAS/WS/20/015 be approved for signing by the
Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council.
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29. |
2019-2020 Statement of Accounts PDF 189 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/20/016
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Committee received Report number
PAS/WS/20/016, which sought members approval of the 2019-2020
Statement of Accounts for the West Suffolk Council (Appendix A), in
accordance with powers delegated to it under the Council’s
Constitution.
It was reported that the statutory
requirements for the reporting and approval of the Council’s
annual financial statements were set out in the Accounts and Audit
Regulations 2015. The regulations
require the Council to submit draft accounts to its external
auditors by 31 May each year, with approval of the accounts
required once the external audit had been concluded by 31 July each
year. Due to Covid-19 the government
had issued regulations, the Accounts and Audit (Coronavirus)
(Amendment) Regulations 2020 to amend the deadlines in relation to
the 2019 to 2020 accounts. The revised
dates were 31 August 2020 for the draft accounts and 30 November
2020 for the final approval and publication.
The results of EY’s review of the
accounts were provided in the Annual Results Reports, which were
included on the Committee’s agenda (PAS/WS/20/014), along
with a verbal update by EY giving their current position as of this
evening (19 November 2020).
The attached Statement of Accounts (Appendix
A) had been amended, as appropriate, to take on board issues raised
by the audit process up to the date of distribution.
EY had confirmed this evening (19 November
2020) that the audit of West Suffolk Council had been substantially
concluded and would be issuing an unqualified opinion on the
financial statements and the value for money conclusion that the
Council had made the appropriate arrangements to secure economy,
efficiency and effectiveness in the Council’s use of
resources. This meant the Committee was
in a position to sign the 2019 to 2020 Statement of Accounts
off.
The covering report summarised financial
highlights in 2019-2020; revenue and expenditure; capital
expenditure; usable reserves; pensions fund; annual governance
statement and payments to councillors.
The Assistant Director (Resources and
Performance) drew the Committee’s attention to a couple of
key areas (financial highlights for 2019 to 2020) within the
comprehensive income and expenditure account, the balance
sheet and cash flow
statement.
Since the agenda was published on 12 November
2020, a number of adjustments had been made in line with EY
comments, such as the Mildenhall Hub and the Solar Farm
adjustments. These had been worked
through with EY in the new version, which would ultimately be
signed off by the Chief Finance Officer, in
consultation with the Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance,
under delegated authority to make any changes that may be required
up to the date of publication.
The Assistant Director
(Resources and Performance) wished to thank EY and the
council’s finance team, as it had been a challenging time to
carry out audits this year under a pandemic.
The Committee scrutinised the
draft accounts in detail and asked questions on the pensions fund;
the current deficit position, and the total short-term debtors to
which comprehensive responses were provided.
The Chair on behalf of the Committee wished to
...
view the full minutes text for item 29.
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30. |
2020-2021 Performance Report (Quarter 2) PDF 280 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/20/017
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Service Manager (Finance and Resources)
presented Report number PAS/WS/20/017, which set out
the Quarter 2 performance and financial outturn position for
2020-2021 up to 30 September 2020, and the impact of Covid-19; next
steps and principles for future financial planning.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19
in the UK, a number of events had occurred which had had a
significant impact on West Suffolk Council’s financial
position. Some of these had been
restrictions imposed by Government that had affected West Suffolk
Council’s investments and services; and others had been
announcements of Government financial support.
The Council had played its part
in responding to Covid-19 in supporting businesses and the most
vulnerable as well as running essential services. The monthly returns to the Ministry for Housing,
Communities and Local Government had detailed the financial impacts
of Covid-19, and generally the forecast impacts had remained
consistent on a month by month basis.
The latest submission showed a total impact of £11.2m (costs
of £2.9m and lost income of £8.3m). However, it should be noted that these were
required to be gross figures and therefore an element of the
additional costs such as internal staff redeployment and costs
savings had also been factored into the figures.
Through the work of the council and funding of
these costs through existing budgets the current forecast showed
these variances to reduce to a cost of £1.1m and has impacted
on a number of our local performance indicators, most noticeably
around housing and homelessness.
Equally the income expected to be generated by the council in the
current financial year through sales, fees, and charges and so on
was expected to reduce by £6.8m.
The impact of Covid-19 was likely to be felt
for years to come as the council will need to make provision in its
medium-term budget plans for the impact on the collection fund
deficits, and the replenishment of its earmarked reserves and
general fund balances.
Attached to the Quarter 2
performance report were a number of appendices which set out the
performance and financial outturn position for 2020 to 2021 up to
30 September 2020, 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 Expenditure Report
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Appendix G: Capital Programme
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Appendix H: Earmarked Reserves
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Appendix I: Strategic Risk Register
Members considered the report
in detail and asked questions of the Assistant Directors, to which
responses were provided, such as whether the council would be
looking at new ways of working digitally and solar panels on
business units. Detailed discussions
were also held on:
Appendix A:
(Income from entire property portfolio) –
Members questioned the process regarding tenancy/lease renewals
during the pandemic.
Members were informed that
Hazels were the council’s agents for industrial properties in
Mildenhall under question. Hazels
maintain dialogue with the council regarding ...
view the full minutes text for item 30.
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31. |
Internal Audit Mid-Year Progress Report 2020-2021 PDF 116 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/20/018
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Committee received Report number
PAS/WS/20/018, which updated members on progress made against
internal audit’s 2020-2021 work plan approved by this
committee in May 2020 and provided a flavour of the work undertaken
in the year to date.
Attached at Appendix A to the report was the
Mid-year Internal Audit progress report 2020-2021.
During the period, significant time had been
spent by the audit team on supporting the council in its response
to the impacts of Covid-19, as well as some redeployment of
internal audit staff to assist other services.
It had always been the case that the 2020-2021
internal audit work plan needed to be fluid and flexible enough to
respond to changing risks and priorities, particularly in the light
of Covid-19. The fluid nature of the
internal audit work plan was particularly demonstrated in the
“added value” work which had always been concerned with
using internal audit resources where the most impact could be
achieved. An important added value area
for the internal audit team to focus on was to support process
around the payment of Covid-19 related grants to businesses, and
therefore significant audit time had been spent in this area.
As a result of the above less audit assurance
work had been carried out within the period than would normally be
the case and therefore some re-balancing of the internal audit plan
was necessary to work towards an annual internal audit opinion
being issued at the end of the year.
There were no significant areas of concern to
highlight from the audit work completed to date.
Members considered the report and did not
raise any issues.
There being no decision required, the
Committee noted the progress made against the 2020-2021
Internal Audit Plan.
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32. |
Delivering a Sustainable Medium-Term Budget PDF 196 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/20/019
Minutes:
The Committee received Report
No: PAS/WS/20/019 which explained that at its meeting on 30 July
2020, the Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committee (PASC) supported
Cabinet in the next steps and principles for future financial
planning across the medium term. The
approach was designed to enable the council to respond effectively
to changing circumstances whilst maintaining a medium-term focus on
the council’s financial sustainability.
The Committee was updated on
the development of the flexible and responsive recovery plan, a
plan that would continue to follow (and test) the agreed financial
strategy and six key medium-term financial strategy
themes.
It was reported that the
in-principle medium term budget envelope, detailed in the February
2020 budget papers for 2021 to 2022 and beyond, already included
the need to make significant savings across the medium-term
financial plans. The impact of Covid-19
and the key budget assumption changes, as set out in section 2 of
the report, were in addition to these saving requirements and had
the council not experienced Covid-19, this committee would have
still been receiving a report setting out the key assumptions and
approach to addressing those savings requirements. The difference now was the scale of the saving
requirements as a direct result of Covid-19 and the local and
national recovery impacts.
Proposals and key budget
assumptions to date, which were set out in Section 2 of the
report. The net impact of the key
assumption changes were included in Table 1 of the
report. These changes gave rise to a
budget gap of circa £1.0m for 2021 to 2022, £2.0m for
2022 to 2023, £3.0m for 2023 to 2024 and £3.4m for 2024
to 2025.
The committee at is January
2021 meeting would receive an update on the savings proposals and
initiatives to address the budget gap set out in section 3 of this
report. Cost certainty would play a
particular focus on this year’s budget process to enable,
where possible, greater certainty of the council’s financial
plans give the volatility of income streams.
The Committee considered the report including
the assumptions.
At the conclusion of the discussions, the
Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance thanked the Assistant
Director (Resources and Performance), and the finance team on the
budget report, and members who had attended the budget briefings
held on 16 and 17 November 2020.
Councillor Phil Wittam then moved the
recommendation, this was duly seconded by Councillor Victor
Lukaniuk, and with the vote being unanimous, it was:
RECOMMEDED:
That Cabinet be
recommended to include the proposals as detailed in Section 2 and
Table 1 at paragraph 3.2, of Report number PAS/WS/20/019, in the
medium-term financial plans.
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33. |
Financial Resilience Report (September 2020) PDF 243 KB
Report number: FRS/WS/20/003
was considered by the Financial Resilience Sub-Committee on 9
November 2020.
The Service Manager (Finance and Performance)
will update the Committee verbally on any issues or recommendations
arising from the consideration of this report.
Minutes:
The Committee received Report number
FRS/WS/20/003, which had been scrutinised in detail by the
Financial Resilience Sub-Committee on 9 November 2020. The Service Manager (Resources and Performance)
provided a verbal update on the Sub-Committee’s consideration
of the report, which summarised the investment activities from 1
April 2020 to 30 September 2020.
It was reported that the total amount invested
at 1 April 2020 was £29,900,000 and at 30 September 2019,
£27,900,000.
The 2020-2021 Annual Treasury Management and
Investment Strategy Statements, sets out the Council’s
projections for the current financial year. The budget for investment income for 2020-2021 was
£142,141 which was based on a 0.65% target average rate of
return on investments.
As at 30 September 2020, interest actually
earned during the first six months of the financial year amounted
to £54,297.81, against a profiled budget for the period of
£71,070 a budgetary deficit of £16,772.69. The deficit related to continued low interest
rates as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic which started in
mid-March.
The report also included a summary of the
capital borrowing budget 2020 to 2021; borrowing and income –
proportionality; borrowing and asset yields; borrowing and
temporary loans and other market considerations.
As at the end of
September 2020, the Council had not had any additional external
borrowing or temporary loans over the long-term £4 million
loan.
The Sub-Committee had scrutinised the report
in detail and asked a number of questions to which comprehensive
responses were provided.
The Committee considered the
report. In response to a question
raised relating to the Brandon Leisure Centre development, officers
explained the project was being funded from earmarked reserves and
not external borrowing.
Councillor Andy Neal then moved the
recommendation, this was duly seconded by Councillor Phil Wittam,
and with the vote being unanimous, it was
RECOMMENDED:
That subject to the
approval of Cabinet and Council, the Financial Resilience Report
– September 2020, being Report No: FRS/WS/20/003, be
approved.
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34. |
Local Government Ombudsman Annual Report 2019-2020 PDF 153 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/20/020
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Committee received and noted Report number
PAS/WS/20/020, which set out the background and
context; number of complaints raised about West Suffolk Council;
the outcome of complaints considered by the Local Government
Ombudsman (LGO) and conclusions.
The LGO issues an annual report
on its activity, which maps the volume and nature of complaints
received across the Country. Each
Council was also issued with its own performance
report. The report presented to the
Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committee informed members on the
outcome of the complaints considered by the LGO during the first
year of West Suffolk Council.
Attached to the report were two
appendices:
-
Appendix 1 set out the cases which the LGO had
upheld against West Suffolk Council during April 2019 to March
2020; and
-
Appendix 2 set out the cases which the LGO upheld
against the former St Edmundsbury Borough Council which had not
been concluded by 1 April 2019.
Whilst four cases were upheld
this year, this remains a very small number in the context of the
many thousands of people that the Council interacts with each
year. Overall, the number of complaints
made to the LGO about West Suffolk Council was consistent with
other authorities of a similar size and the Ombudsman was satisfied
the Council had taken the necessary steps following their
investigations.
The Committee considered the
report and did not raise any issues.
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35. |
Work programme update PDF 114 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/20/021
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Committee received Report number:
PAS/WS/20/021, which updated members on the current status of its
rolling work programme of items for scrutiny during 2020-2021
(Appendix 1).
The 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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