Transcript
I'll be chairing tonight's meeting. Everybody in this room knows what their usual spiel is, so I'm not going to go through it. We are being live streamed, we'll switch that off when we get to item B3 and probably for that reason we'll take item B3 at the very end. Otherwise we're open to accusations that part of the meeting has been held in secret, which is discussing things which are not actually exempt.
Let's welcome Nazarene in particular to your last meeting. We've all become very aware of the great rending of a fabulous joint service with Camden over the years. If anything the audit service is the one surviving part of a very grand scheme 15 years ago to really significantly integrate Camden.
Camden and Islington and Islington and then we just leave it as impractical. So we just ended up doing the things which were very practical and indeed it so it has been. Let's then move on to the agenda. Apologies for absence, I don't think we have any, therefore no substitute members. Any declarations further than our usual declarations in the register of interest? No, minutes of the previous meeting. If you're happy with those I shall sign them. Let's move on. Paul, can you just tell us if there's
any variable financial updates you want to appraise us of?
So since the last update I gave there have been very small up and down offsetting movements to the bottom line.
So the bottom line for the council is just a bit over £3 million net budget overspend on the general fund. We have £5 million general contingency which can offset that. So we expect to finish the year and view a minor amount into reserves.
There is still a couple of outstanding kind of one off items which hopefully will be resolved. So that is the commercial settlements that we've talked about in this or in scrutiny committee. So hopefully those documents will be signed in the next week which will allow us to recognise that income in the financial year.
If the legal documents aren't signed in the financial year, it doesn't affect our forecast this year and it doesn't preclude us from getting the money, it's just the timing.
But that is relatively good news given the kind of acceleration of temporary accommodation pressures that we'd had earlier on in the year where it was hundreds of thousands of pounds increase each month.
Well just to take us a little bit more detail because I'm aware that the Q3 monitoring report goes to the executive on Thursday and that report shows a very slight worsening of the predicted variance at the sort of directorate level from £14 million to £15.9 million but equally there are some corporate items and other items which then offset that.
So the net general fund is improved from a deficit of £4.3 million to £3.1 million which is all jolly good.
Is there anything that's happened in months 10 and 11 that would indicate that this has worsened, improved?
So not in months 10 or 11 I think I've updated the committee.
I lose track of when this committee is versus when the publication of the Q3 numbers or the verbal update on Q3 that I gave.
So one of the biggest movements that happened most recent was £1 million on parking which related to an assumption that we would have infrastructure companies pay for parking suspensions for them to basically dig up the road to put in increased connectivity in the borough.
So that was the last time there was a significant movement since then that have been what I would characterise as fairly minor, things that are maybe up to £150,000 each way which offset the latest numbers on temporary accommodation.
And I keep referring to that one because that's the one that I'm consistently most worried about, generally been stable since Q3.
In the latest numbers there's a marginal uptick on that which is possibly slightly larger but masked by some additional income.
So as that plays through, we'll just keep an eye on that, but that moved by about £150,000.
The gross movement might have been about £400,000.
But again that was offset by movements in the other direction.
So actually month 11 for instance went up by £30,000 or so from month 10.
So mine.
Okay.
And the thing that sort of sticks out a wee bit is that it's fun enough in your own directorate.
Congratulations Paul.
Paul is now the acting corporate director for resources.
So he has an empire which includes legal human resources.
But there was worsening in resources from roughly breaking even to being about a million adrift.
Is that, the report that goes to the executive doesn't say, well, indicate what that's about.
Is that a one-off or something that might start to require?
So the predominant reason for movement in that is around the costs of servicing the legal requirements for children's services.
So we are working through how that is being managed and mitigated and also just making sure of legal budgets a couple of years ago.
So I'm just doing my due diligence to make sure that the appropriate budget is transferred over.
Because obviously children's are in a very fairly healthy position.
And it looks like the legal costs are obviously presenting the pressure on resources.
So I just wanted to make sure that there was nothing going on with the budget transfers.
Does it not make sense for legal services to be sort of fully recharged to children's services in these circumstances?
So it does, but what we didn't want to obviously disincentivise people accessing legal advice when they need to.
And equally, there is the kind of professional oversight and the accountability from someone accessing legal advice.
If the person accessing it doesn't have the levers to kind of ration access, then you end up without spend controls, essentially, if that makes sense.
So if one person is commissioning the legal spend, but then it's hitting someone else's budget, there's no incentive to manage to provide that advice.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
Members got any questions?
No?
Good.
Thank you very much indeed.
That's really helpful.
Okay.
Let's then move on to the item B2, the Drift Annual Internal Audit Plan.
Nazreen, welcome.
Talk us through it.
Thank you, Chair.
So this is the draft 25-26 audit plan, and the recommendation to the committee is to note the report and specifically approve the strategy, the charter,
and then the plan itself.
So I'll just say a bit about the background and how the plan was written.
So committee will recall that we had updated the principal risk report last year.
So the starting point was a mapping exercise, mapping the principal risks to assurance activity over a number of years, and thereby giving us sort of a steer in terms of gaps and areas where we want to be providing assurance.
We then had a draft plan, and then what we did is we went around to see all the directorate management teams, so each corporate director has their directorate management team, and we went to go and see them and get an idea of the risks, whether the risks we had arrived yet chimed with their concerns as well.
So we also, as part of the drafting exercise, spoke with colleagues across London and also looked at what others in London Audit Group were doing, and that's how we arrived at the draft plan.
And then sort of the last place we visited was the corporate management team, CMT, and received really helpful feedback from them two weeks ago in terms of, you know, their worry list and where resources should be going.
I think, again, I think we've mentioned follow-up audits because a key part of what we do is provide assurance to the senior leadership and committee that audit recommendations are being implemented, and note the plan has a number of areas where we talk to follow-ups and extended follow-ups.
We've also mentioned that Section 7, conformance with the global internal audit standards, it feels like we've been talking about it for quite some time, and it's finally here, it's upon us, we've got implementation date of the 1st of April, and I think within, you know, sort of the last piece of work around the shared service was a roadmap,
and we had worked the roadmap, and we had worked the roadmap over a number of months, culminated in self-assessment, and we've made minor tweaks to our methodology and ways of working in the last few weeks.
I think it's also important to say we did train committee in December, so we had Subfa come in and train.
I think Islington was quite early there because I've been speaking to other boroughs that I've still looked at the January chair session to train the members and training coming up,
so I think that's a helpful exercise in terms of GIS compliance,
and I think I'll probably mention the charter and the strategy, so the strategy isn't vastly amended compared to last year.
The objectives still feel the same, there's some tweaks with the new standards coming in,
and we've also written a strategy just from Islington's perspective, you know, given the de-merger,
but interesting enough, it still looks very similar to Camden's because that's what a good internal audit service will seek to achieve.
The charter, Appendix 2, is where we've had a significant amount of changes,
so this is Islington's charter, it doesn't talk to a shared service,
but most importantly, it complies with what the new standards are asking of us, essentially,
and in terms of drafting the charter and arriving where we are,
we had worked with colleagues in London Audit Group to see what is taking place elsewhere,
so I mean, I feel it's a helpful charter, I also think what we look to do is just bring it back, you know, annually,
so we said it's something that we keep under review annually,
and then just lastly, Appendix 3, is then the draft audit plan,
and if I maybe just talk to resourcing very quickly, is we've had our new audit manager start,
he is actually this week waiting for committee to approve the plan tonight,
and then working on the plan allocations already.
One of the things that the corporate management team have said in the feedback a few weeks ago
is a quicker start to the plan, so kick off the plan earlier in the new year.
In terms of resourcing, obviously, my role will be recruiter too,
but we've only actually got one vacancy in the team,
we've got one audit vacancy in the team, and that advert goes out in April,
so I feel we're in a good position, we've always got our contractor in the background,
although that's not the key plan to utilise the contractor to deliver the plan,
but that is a contingency in the 25-26 year.
So I think that's all I had by way of introduction, and then open to questions.
Thank you very much indeed.
Good, it's a very thorough plan, and I think members will probably be interested
just to really sense whether there is the right resource to deliver this plan,
given that there is some flux and change built in,
and it might be helpful, Paul, if you give us a bit of an update on the recruitment.
Yeah, should I do recruitment, and then we can talk to the general capacity.
So the advert for the risk manager, which is the second role,
is hopefully going on the council's website, possibly tomorrow,
possibly as early as tomorrow.
It should all be, it was all finally signed off today,
so I think that will just be going through a proofreading.
In terms of then the replacement for Nazarene's role,
so it's really critical that we get the right calibre for that.
They are extremely rare commodities for people of really high calibre like Nazarene.
So the recruitment strategy that we've been working with HR
is more than just putting it on the website,
because really what we need to do is shape people from other organisations.
So we've procured a partner to help us recruit to that post.
We've had the initial kind of process that they will be diving into their networks now,
so hopefully once they're publicising it,
they've already hit the ground running with contacting people for that.
So if it's just about to be advertised,
what's the timetable from there onwards?
So we expect a recruitment decision very early May,
so then assuming notice period,
I'm currently working to there being a gap at the head of internal audit role
for approximately a month,
which for me I believe that we can live with that for a small period of time,
because we've got Holly running the investigations team,
we've got Lee running the internal audit team,
but the only gap that we'll have is obviously the service leadership,
but then the risk manager.
But as obviously the kind of full-time equivalent,
with it being a shared resource hopefully,
there will be a period where we potentially have a gap in the risk manager.
It's not a chief officer at all.
The risk manager.
Oh, I'm sorry.
On filling Nazarene's post,
is it a plan B?
As you say, this is quite specialised,
you know, it's very specialised.
What's the plan B if that doesn't work out?
So plan B would be to go straight back out to market
to cover the leadership role by essentially the team managers
being a direct report of the director of finance,
which is my substantive role rather than my current role.
I don't believe that that will be necessary.
I believe that the salary and the reputation of Islington
should attract suitable candidates.
Obviously, the recruitment partner that we've engaged
believes that it's recruitable
and has a 100% strike rate so far of similar roles.
So nothing is saying it is definitely a risk
and it is a really kind of high-stakes appointment,
but nothing is saying that there is a problem in my eyes yet.
Nazarene, do you just want to comment a little bit
on the matching of available resources to deliver this very ambitious plan?
So we've actually done a calculation this week, Chair,
so we're going to be allocating to our two principal auditors
as they currently stand.
Lee, our new audit manager, is going to be, like his predecessors,
undertaking some level of follow-up, including one extended follow-up.
We go to market in April for the one principal auditor vacancy that we have.
Those jobs tend to have about a two-month notice period,
so we're hoping that we'll have a recruitment decision around mid-May
and then somebody in post by July, essentially.
We are quite comfortable from the point of view that we've got a certain budget
to use on the contractor, which we haven't fully utilised this year.
And, you know, should we need to back full at all next year,
just purely as a second choice.
I mean, our first choice to recruit and get the permanent person to do their orders,
but if that wasn't successful, we can lean on the contractor, essentially.
I think we're in a better position now than we were in January,
because when we visited in January, we had the auditor manager vacancy
as well as a principal auditor.
And now in March, our audit manager has started,
and it's just the auditor vacancy, essentially.
Okay.
So, yes.
Our members, Alan, I know you were going to ask about
whether sufficient days have been allocated to that.
It's a really good question,
and I've got such a clear answer
because there was a lot of discussion around this.
So 140 does sound low.
We've had a decent level of implementation,
I'll say it's not a fantastic level of implementation
that would vastly reduce follow-up days.
But what we have included more of in this year's plan
is extended follow-ups.
So, for example, when we look at the follow-up activity for 140 days,
right above it, you'll see modern-day slavery
has got 10 days of its own follow-up activity.
I think further along,
we had said to committee in January
that we had a new bold special review
as well as affordable workspaces,
that didn't feel right to lump into the overall follow-up category,
and we gave it its own extended follow-up, essentially.
So I think if you take into account
the number of extended follow-ups
and also the amount of days
allocated to the extended follow-ups,
it's about right.
But, yeah, thank you.
Caroline.
Yeah, I'm interested in the
essential conditions
for the Audit and Risk Committee,
which is the bit that's presumably about
our input.
So on page 24,
there's a,
at point 35,
there's a list of 23, I think,
things that the ARC will do.
And I just wonder,
does that all happen
through the work of this committee?
Because there's an awful lot of things in here
and just making sure
that we've actually thought about
how we fulfil all of those things
that we are expected to do.
I'm sure it can be done
through our committee meetings,
but we're going to need to,
yeah, I just wonder
if anyone's done any thinking about that.
So I think it's a really good question as well,
and I think I'm very relevant
given that the new standards are coming in.
So I think there is
sort of a one-size-fits-all
for all of the requirements,
and they fall into categories.
So some will very easily come to the committee
and it will be ticked off,
for example,
approve the charter,
you know,
approve the audit plan,
it will happen.
Some areas will sort of come into play
when things go wrong.
So, for example,
enable internal orders unrestricted actors.
I mean,
I've been here some years
and we've never had an issue with access.
We generally get the access that we need to,
but there are times,
and the charter needs to make provision for this,
where internal audit will have a scope restriction
or access will be restricted,
and then it's the head of audit's responsibility
to alert the chair,
alert the committee,
that there's a scope,
you know,
restriction here.
I think one of the things we can do,
you know,
ahead of the annual report coming
is give thought to where this sits.
Essentially,
I don't know,
Paul,
maybe like a little table for Lee
in terms of how,
how the responsibility is discharged,
essentially.
So if it's via paper,
then we say so,
and if it's via just,
you know,
training or troubleshooting,
then we say so,
so it's clearer.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that'll be really helpful,
and I think,
feeding it into the conversations that we have,
I mean,
we have really good training
through SIPFA
around the functioning of the audit committee as well,
and principles of success.
Very good.
I know both Nick and Sara,
you were concerned about
the sense of priorities in the plan?
I think,
I mean,
some of that's been covered,
I think,
by Alan's question.
I had just a question about pace,
like the resource allocated,
the number of days.
I'm just aware that this is happening
in the context,
not only of big new national legislation,
it's happening in the context of us decoupling
from,
so there's quite a lot of external context
to this year's annual audit plan
that doesn't,
that just isn't normally there.
So I don't know if there's anything else
you wanted to say about,
about the context,
I guess,
and the responsiveness to that.
I think I'm conscious
that when the paper comes,
it sort of looks very stable,
and probably because it is,
but in the background,
there's been a lot of discussion
around,
you know,
what we look like
post the demerger,
but when you really take it apart,
the team is stable,
the audit manager was hired
before,
you know,
we knew the demerger was taking place.
So I think,
I mean,
I'll come to the second point
around,
you know,
the national position
and all the other external forces,
but I think in terms of
the demerger
itself,
it doesn't feel
as though there's
an immediate
disadvantage.
I think that,
you know,
if you're talking to the team,
they're looking forward
to a full-time resource
rather than just
a half resource,
and probably
an HIA
that has more time
to work with them
operationally.
So I think
in terms of
direct impact
on the plan,
it doesn't feel a risk,
and I think particularly
because our two
principal auditors
that we have in post
have been with the council
for a number of years,
so that lack of
continuity
and knowledge
and of experience
just goes away
as a risk.
I think in terms of
you know,
the external environment
we're operating in,
I feel we've hit
the right areas
on the plan,
so for example,
the new procurement act
is coming in,
that's been included
on the plan.
I think key will just be
to get the plan
delivered,
essentially.
And I also think,
you know,
we don't operate
in a vacuum
at Islington,
and, you know,
sort of me going
isn't going to change that.
The team comes
to London Order Group,
they collaborate
with the Cross Council
Assurance Services,
which is a number
of London boroughs
drawing on
the PwC framework.
So it's going to be
sort of difficult
to drop a ball
when you're operating
in that kind
of environment
where you're
networking all the time,
dealing with colleagues,
and staying abreast,
essentially.
Thank you,
that's very helpful.
I guess there just is a,
because you have worked
here for a long,
you personally have worked
here for a long time,
and then we're going
into a situation
where even in the best
case scenario,
there's probably a bit
of a gap,
and so it's just helpful
to understand some
of those kind of layers
of institutional knowledge
in the team,
and that for Assurance,
and in case there's not
another opportunity to say
thank you for the work
you've done here.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think also,
just to say,
Councillor Hyde,
is the way we work
in London.
For example,
I don't want to quote
the names of the boroughs,
but the HIAs
that I speak to
quite regularly
across London,
and I think
when the new person starts,
I imagine we'd probably
be in touch every month,
you know,
for a couple of months,
because it will be
exactly that knowledge
transfer,
and it was exactly
the same way
when I got this job
some years ago,
where in the first few months
I'd been speaking
to the previous HIA
quite a bit,
because it was exactly
that knowledge transfer,
and I'm sure
that will continue.
Good.
Well,
yeah,
there's two sides
to that,
the new person asking
and you giving,
so thank you.
In fact,
there's more the latter
than the former.
Nick?
Yeah,
just quickly on
prioritisation
of this plan,
because inevitably
over the next few months
it will feel
slightly different
with the de-merger
taking place.
What,
at the moment,
are the key
priorities,
in fact,
which internal audits
will be prioritised,
and what do you see
as being
the main challenges
for internal audit
over the next six months?
Again,
such a good question,
and I think
as we were
defining the quarters
this year,
I think this year
the quarters on the plan
are probably more meaningful
than any other year,
because even the
corporate management team
gave feedback
around the quarters.
Sometimes the quarters
don't matter so much,
so for example,
quarter one
can mean quarter two,
and this year
the feedback
from the corporate
management team
was sometimes
can you change this
to that quarter,
but also a very clear
directive
from the chief executive
and the corporate
management team
to kick off the plan
quickly.
So I'll probably
just say something
operationally,
but I think it will
provide some assurance,
so our new audit manager,
Lee,
is due to go and see
all the corporate
directors
in April
to talk through
their sector
of the plan
for the coming year,
but in terms
of the key pieces
taking place
quite imminently,
so starting
sort of April
after Easter
is the two extended
follow-ups
that we
talked to
on page 31,
so the new
build program
and affordable
workspace,
and we've given
that Q1
essentially,
so those are
actually already
in planning stages,
those follow-ups,
and then deliver
everything else
that's listed
as Q1,
in Q1.
We've also said
to our co-source
partner,
PwC,
that they will get
their plan in April,
so usually where
they scope in the summer,
this year we'd like
to see them scope
in spring.
I think there's also
that added impetus
because I'm going
and I want to leave
it in a good place,
whereas usually I'll say,
oh, let's get the
annual report done
in scope in the summer,
and now it's the other
way, can we scope
in the spring,
so that I can do,
you know,
a handover
that I'm proud of
essentially.
Thank you very much
indeed.
Alan, I think you
wanted to just
ask a couple
of questions.
Can I ask a question,
Nazeem,
on Appendix 4,
just for my
understanding,
because you've
laid out this
assurance map
slightly differently,
fairly clearly,
but I'm just
slightly
needing an
understanding
when you highlight
from 2021,
2022
and onwards,
so you're going
back in a sense.
Does that imply
you're revisiting
areas that haven't
had complete
audit clearance,
or they're just
part of the
program anyway?
Yeah,
so I think,
so the reason
why we
code
2021,
2022 onwards
is,
I think we've
got something
like 28 to
30 principal
risks,
and it isn't
possible to audit
every principal
risk to the
desk we'd want
every year.
year, so we
sort of look
at over the
last, you
know, sort
of four
years, what
assurance, you
know, what
activity had
taken place,
and then also
what was the
assurance outcome,
essentially, and
then that informs
whether we put it
on the current
year's plan, for
example.
So I think if
we perhaps take
the first one
where we've got
new bold as
the top risk on
the principal risk
report, and then
our coverage says
21 to 25, this is
what we've done, so
work in every single
year, essentially, and
then what we said we
do in 25, 26 is
just follow-up
activity, essentially.
So I think when
you look at the
standards as well, the
new standards, the
idea is that you
have to deliver a
risk-based plan, and
you look at, you
know, the ongoing
assurance for that
company.
The other point
here I had was on
Appendix 3, again
for clarification,
which is page 30.
The first one, CC
25-1, risk
management assurance
mapping, just
can you just
explain, explain
what that means, and
is there a
correlation between
that and your
comment about
fraud risks?
Is that part and
parcel of the same
thing?
Oh, I think so
generally in the
cross-cutting
section, so CC
25-1 to CC
25-5 are usually
the static thesis
that we have on
the audit plan, but
because the audit
manager's resource
also goes into
this plan, we
say, you know, we
include any audit
activity that they
will be undertaking
so for example, the
risk management
assurance mapping is
actually undertaking
that exercise in
Appendix 4, so, you
know, and that's why
it says quarter 3 as
well, so come sort of
Christmas time, the
audit manager will pick
up the latest
principal risk report
and start that
mapping exercise, and
it's not that the
appendix itself takes
him five days, it's
the pre-work, looking
at all the outcomes,
what was the
assurance
racing, and then
suddenly the next
one, fraudulent
activity, we've
said 10 days, it
may be more, we
may go into the
contingency, but it
matters that Holly
refers, so Holly
may do an
investigation and
say, well, I'm a
bit concerned about
say, a school for
example, can you go
in and do a full
audit?
so, yeah, that's
where it comes from,
yeah.
Very good, thank
you, and I think,
yes, because I think,
Alan, you were asking
about the, I think you
described it as
principal risk, about
the alignment with the
council's risk
appetite, but actually
it's profile rather
than, I mean,
actually it's a very
interesting question,
what is the council's
risk appetite?
Because I don't know
the answer to that,
to be fair.
I raised in the
context here of the
defined, trying to
remember now, in the
context of the audit
charter, I think, and
or in terms of the
strategy, the other
strategy, and yes, and
it mentions, I think
it's paragraph 2.1,
mentions aligning it to
the council's risk
profile, so my point is
anyone reading that
would automatically
think, well, what is
the council's risk
profile, and I just
thought an extra
sentence might be
required, and that
leads on to discussing
what, does it open the
door about, well, risk
profile, risk
appetite, risk
tolerance, how far
do you go, but
certainly it begs a
question beyond the
risk appetite statement.
I think, you know,
we've always said
file with service,
there's risk management
sitting on the top
of the umbrella, and
then internal audit
following from there,
and then investigations
usually coming in when
something goes wrong.
when you look at
that umbrella at the
top, that's the risk
manager working with
the senior leadership
and the corporate
management team to
define what are the
council's principal
risks, and that comes
in the principal risk
report, and then
separately when we talk
about appetite, that
is included in the
framework, and
interestingly we were
just talking to Paul
about this in the last
week, essentially, it's
one of the pieces of
work we're doing ahead
of the demerger, is
revising the council's
risk management
framework, and I think
I had mentioned when
we came to committee in
January with the risk
paper, that we had the
council's insurers
undertake an external
review, and they've
come back with some
really helpful
recommendations.
I think I'll just sort
of remind that the
current risk appetite is
came to committee in
2022, as part of the
risk management
framework, and we took
a very broad view that
felt comfortable for the
senior leadership at the
time, so maybe I'll just
share it after this
meeting with committee
again, just to see what
it currently looks like,
and then when the
updated framework comes
in July, you can sort
of compare, but we sort
of said, you know, made
a provision like, you
know, we won't tolerate
something that's a breach
of a legal obligation,
for example, and yes,
sorry, so it was quite
a broad risk appetite.
I hope that's the top
line of our risk appetite.
Sorry, I think just one
final comment, Chair.
On the strategy, my point
also was that there's no
mention of the fact that
over the past years, the
internal audit has given
a blanket assurance
rating of moderate.
overall, you've got a
moderate rating, and I
just wonder whether that
should be included in
the strategy, in other
words, increasing, try to
have a strategic direction
to have more of a, more
of a higher rating than
moderate.
I think that's what I'm
trying to get to.
Yeah, I mean, I think it
would be difficult to define
that within the strategy
because we'll always be
pre-empting because the
strategy is forward-looking
and an opinion is
backward-looking, but I
think it's worth saying
that moderate actually
means an adequate
control for the work, so
it's what others may call
reasonable.
Yeah.
Good.
Carol?
Sorry, got a question about
Appendix 4 and the
assurance map, and just, it
was on page 35, the cost of
energy, and it says that as
such, additional assurance
work in this area is not
considered necessary for 25-26,
and I just wondered if that's
been revisited since the
change of administration in
the White House and the kind
of global uncertainty that is
kind of all across our
television screens, and just
in terms of energy, cost of
energy as a risk.
Sorry, councillor, so what page
really?
Page 35, cost of energy, not
before page 39.
I apologise, because on page...
Oh, page 39, sorry.
Okay, so on page 39.
I think what we had done,
following the corporate
management team's feedback, is
amended climate, so we had
removed climate from the plan,
and then put it in for 25-26,
I think, if committee...
It's not climate though, is it?
It's cost of energy, which is...
I think the reason why I was
mentioning it is when we are
scoping, because we haven't
defined the scope yet, and I
wonder, we could do two things,
and I think this is why it's
helpful that the plan comes here
for approval, rather than
noting, and we say, if the
committee does want something
around energy, it's either a new
order, or we consider that when
we're scoping climate, because we
haven't got a specific scope for it
yet.
All gone.
I mean, just to remind as well
that this is the internal audit
plan, so the cost of energy as a
risk, and as a principal risk, is
still there, so this is just about
whether we choose to audit it, and
the context of when it went in was
when we were really, really exposed
to the spike in energy following the
invasion of the Ukraine, so it's
stable, clearly there's risks around
the entire world, around the
energy cost, but what we would learn
from an internal audit of it is
probably limited.
Got it.
Thank you.
Yeah.
And if I would discuss this at the
last meeting, I mean, the issue
probably is where the council takes a
fresh look at the sort of collective
purchasing arrangements, and see
whether that is purchasing forward
prices have worked sufficiently smartly
to be able to hedge some of these
risks, because you look at energy
prices three, four years from now,
those forward prices have not gone
up.
I mean, the market could be wrong, but
you can actually buy energy four or
five years out from now at pretty
decent prices.
That's the issue, whether we should
mitigate that risk, rather than
sort of speculating whether Donald
Trump's going to have a meltdown and
the price of everything will rocket
upwards, you know.
I mean, he's controlled the price of
eggs, apparently, ever so cleverly.
Good.
Okay.
Any other questions on this topic?
Lovely.
Thank you very much indeed.
That's been a really helpful conversation
there.
Right.
Let's, before we switch off the live
stream to our hundreds of viewers,
thousands of viewers, let's just do
B4 and B4, sorry, yes, the work plan and
the action sheets.
I've just distributed, I distributed
earlier a couple of notes to members,
just trying to bolt down some of our
deep dives a little bit more clearly,
and not wanting to get into the
extravagance of, what do you call it,
scrutiny?
A PID, a project initiation document,
yes, it is, which runs the pages.
So I've just drafted out a couple of
sentences, setting out the scope of
certainly three of them, some deep
dives on the vulnerability of
financial risk associated with
following school roles, a look at the
governance on the, over the, the way
in which we're dealing with the
emerging difficulties of recruiting
some senior staff roles, and whether
we've got the right, whether we've got
the right sort of governance and
candidate selection assurances in
place, and then perhaps a further
assessment on the risk associated with
recycling rates, remaining broadly
unchanged with some risk factor to
increase recycle rates.
Members are sort of happy with those
firmer form of words, then that's good.
And then I've suggested that we've got
a slightly better sort of set of
warrants for some information report
requests.
The matter of indemnification of
councillors insurance, which was
something we realised is a little bit
of a risky issue.
And then another look at this year's
experience on estimating the income
costs on the parking income account,
recognising that again for the third
year, and there's been a little bit
overestimation of income, just getting
a real grip on the sorts of
assumptions there.
Are we happy with that?
Yeah, okay, thank you very much indeed.
Okay, let's throw the switch, turn off
the feed, shut the door, no, we don't
need to shut the doors.
Let's move on then to, thank you.
Right, let's move on to the exempt
report.
Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you very much indeed.