This meeting was about the Council's finances and risk register. It included a report from the External Auditors, KPMG, on their progress auditing the Council's accounts for the 2023/24 financial year, an update from Internal Audit on their recent activity, and an update on the Council's corporate risks.

Updates to the 2023/24 Audit

KPMG provided an update on their audit of the council's 2023/24 accounts.

They reported that they had:

• Made progress since the previous meeting of the Committee
• Begun their risk assessment
• Started to review the draft financial statements
• Held handover meetings with Grant Thornton, the previous External Auditors
• Begun their 'Value for Money' work

KPMG stated that they were on track to meet their deadlines.

Internal Audit Activity Report

The Internal Audit team presented their activity report for the period from 1 July 2024 to 31 October 2024.

The report provided an update on the Internal Audit work programme, the progress of previously issued audit reports and a proposal for when the Committee should next review its own effectiveness.

Internal Audit opinions

The report explained the way in which Internal Audit form their opinions of the services they audit, and the way in which they categorise the risk of the recommendations they make.

To determine the overall grading of the Internal Audit report each recommendation is risk rated (high, medium or low).

-- Internal Audit Activity Report, page 3

Progress on the 2024/25 Audit Plan

The report noted that, of the 46 audits¹ in the 2024/25 Internal Audit plan:

• 8 were in progress
• 7 had been completed
• 6 had been deferred

Unplanned Work

The report explained that Internal Audit also undertakes commercial work with a number of academy trusts and town councils, and that it was in the process of tendering to provide services to another academy trust.

This enables the team to positively support the financial position of the Council by attracting income which, in turn, contributes to the budget cost of of the team.

-- Internal Audit Activity Report, page 7

Quality Assurance

The report noted that the Internal Audit team has a Quality Assurance and Improvement programme in place, and that it is overseen by the Audit and Governance Lead Manager.

Effectiveness of the Audit Committee

The report explained that the last time the Committee reviewed its own effectiveness was in 2021, and that a further review had not taken place because:

• Local elections had taken place
• The membership of the committee had changed

Because the current members of the Committee were 'relatively new', the report proposed that the next review of the Committee's effectiveness should be in 2025/26.

Corporate Risk Register

The Corporate Risk Register was presented to the Committee. It is not clear exactly what was scheduled to be discussed, but the report pack included the register itself, and a short narrative description of it.

Risk Management at the Council

The report explained that the Council introduced a new Risk Management Framework in 2023/24, and that the Council maintains a strategic risk register that:

... is used to identify the substantive issues which may impact negatively on the delivery of the Council's priorities and may also have a financial impact

-- Corporate Risk Register Front Sheet, page 2

The report explained that the Strategic Risk Register is reviewed by the Senior Management Team and reported to the Audit Committee three times each year.

The report also noted that each service area will have its own risk register that will be monitored by Service Delivery Managers and reported to Service Directors twice each year.