This meeting was scheduled to include a summary of the complaints received by the council between October and December 2024, an update on the council’s Corporate Risk Register and an annual review by external auditors Forvis Mazars LLP of the council’s value for money arrangements for the 2023/24 financial year. The meeting was also scheduled to consider the appointment of two independent members to the committee. It should be noted that this summary is based only on the documents that were provided to the attendees for the meeting, and does not tell us anything about what was actually discussed, or whether any decisions were actually made.

Complaints and Ombudsman Cases

The meeting was scheduled to include a presentation of a report on the volume and types of Ombudsman cases and complaints received by the council in the third quarter of the 2024/25 financial year. The report pack indicates that complaints performance has decreased, with 54% of complaints being responded to within the council’s target timeframe, compared with 71% in the previous quarter. The main reason for the decrease is reported as being a backlog of complex housing repair complaints, which account for 27% of the total complaints. If these complaints are excluded, the proportion of complaints responded to on time rises to 72%.

The scheduled report states that the council received 98 enquiries from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO)¹ relating to 66 separate complaints. Of these complaints, the LGSCO decided to investigate ten, finding fault in seven. It should be noted that the LGSCO may contact the council more than once about a single complaint in order to request further information, so one complaint can give rise to multiple enquiries. The report is also scheduled to include a summary of the orders made by the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) ² in relation to the council’s activities as a social housing landlord during the 2023/24 financial year.

The report pack also includes a timetable of the actions to be taken by the council to implement learning from complaints, as well as to ensure its policies comply with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, which became mandatory on 1 April 2024³.

Corporate Risk Register

A quarterly monitoring update of the council’s Corporate Risk Register (CRR) was also scheduled to be discussed. The CRR is a document that describes the key risks faced by the council and the actions the council is taking to manage those risks. It is scheduled to be reported that two risks on the CRR have increased and two risks have decreased since the previous quarter.

The increased risks are:

• Safeguarding residents from serious crime, criminal exploitation and radicalisation – the score for this risk is scheduled to be reported as increasing to reflect rising community tensions across the country following the ‘Southport Incident’ and the resulting riots. The council’s Prevent & Community Cohesion team is working with schools, faith groups and community groups to tackle misinformation. Additional funding has been secured to support critical thinking and fact-checking, especially amongst younger residents.
  
• Material in-year budget deficit and resulting adverse impact on the One Hounslow Financial Strategy - the score for this risk is scheduled to be reported as increasing to reflect the changing nature of demand for services, which is putting pressure on the council's future reserve position.

The decreased risks are:

• Insufficient electricity network capacity – the score for this risk is scheduled to be reported as decreasing to reflect proposed changes by the government to how grid connections are secured. The risk remains significant because the area needs a major increase in electricity supply in order to meet growth and decarbonisation targets.
• Unable to achieve Net Zero by 2030 from council operations – the score for this risk is scheduled to be reported as decreasing to reflect the controls that have been put in place by the council and set out in the updated Climate Emergency Action Plan, which was approved by the council’s Cabinet in January 2025.

The report pack indicates that, in future, the ‘Safeguarding residents’ risk will be split, separating the work of the Prevent and Community Cohesion team, such as countering terrorism, from the work that the Safer Communities Service is doing with the police to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour.

Auditor’s Annual Report 2023/24

The meeting was scheduled to receive the annual report from Forvis Mazars LLP, summarising the results of the audit of the council’s accounts for the year ending 31 March 2024. The document includes the auditor’s commentary on the council’s value for money arrangements. The report pack states that the Audit and Governance Committee was not involved in the formal approval of the audited Statement of Accounts, which were approved by the council in February 2025, to ensure that they were published in advance of the 28 February 2025 ‘backstop date’. The backstop date is a statutory deadline that has been imposed on local authority audits by the government to help clear the backlog of unaudited accounts.

The report pack indicates that the auditors intend to issue a ‘disclaimed opinion’ on the council’s financial statements for 2023/24. A disclaimer of opinion means that the auditor is unable to offer an opinion on whether or not the financial statements present a true and fair view. It is scheduled to be reported that the audit work was incomplete when the accounts were published in February 2025, so the auditors could not offer an opinion. It is also scheduled to be reported that the value for money commentary produced by the auditors is not intended to express a view on whether the council is providing value for money; it is instead about the council’s internal arrangements for managing value for money.

The report pack includes a commentary that considers the financial sustainability of the council, its governance arrangements and the way it works to improve the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of its service delivery. The auditors did not identify any significant weaknesses in the council’s arrangements. However, in respect of the Audit and Governance Committee, the report pack includes an observation that:

our attendance at committee has identified occasions where discussions have turned to political debate and strayed away from assurance and into scrutiny… Whereas Scrutiny is concerned with the review of policy, its formulation and implementation, audit operates to ensure that the governance and risk environment within the Council is effective and that financial management is fit for purpose.

Internal Audit Plan and Strategy

The meeting was scheduled to receive a report on the performance of the council’s internal audit function during the third quarter of the 2024/25 financial year. The report pack indicates that internal audit work for the council is delivered in partnership with the London Borough of Ealing.⁴

The report pack indicates that the audit of the council’s arrangements for managing voids is scheduled to be discussed. A ‘void’ is a council-owned property that is empty and not available to be let to a tenant. The report pack states that the audit was scheduled to report a ‘nil assurance’ opinion on the void management process. Nil assurance is the lowest possible assurance rating.

The report pack also includes a progress report on the outstanding high-risk internal audit recommendations that were made during the 2023/24 financial year. Of the thirteen recommendations made, seven have been implemented and six are in progress. One of these, the ‘Formalisation of Governance Arrangements’ of the Lampton Group⁵, which exceeded the September 2023 implementation date, is scheduled to be reported as in progress with a new implementation date of March 2025.

The report pack indicates that the discussion is also scheduled to include an update on the work of the council’s Anti-Fraud Team. The report states that there were 377 referrals received by the Anti-Fraud Team in the first nine months of the 2024/25 financial year, compared with 333 in the same period of 2023/24. A total of 35 sanctions have been issued, with a total value of £952,425.

Appointment of independent members to the Audit & Governance Committee

The meeting was scheduled to include a recommendation to the council to appoint Mr John Turnbull and Mrs Ilva Kana as independent members of the Audit and Governance Committee. Independent members, sometimes called ‘lay members’, are not elected councillors. Both appointees were scheduled to receive an allowance of £2,000 per year. The report pack states that the recruitment of independent members follows the recommendations made in the 2022 edition of the CIPFA’s Statement of Practice of Audit Committees in Local Authority’s.