This meeting included the presentation of the 2022-23 Statement of Accounts, which was scheduled to be approved by the committee. The meeting also included a review of polling districts and polling stations. In addition, the committee was scheduled to approve the Annual Governance Statement and note updates to the Council's Local Code of Governance.

Review of Polling Districts and Polling Stations

The committee was asked to approve changes to the Council's polling districts, which are a legal requirement every five years.

The committee was presented with a report prepared by Vicky Jenner, the Deputy Electoral Registration Officer. The report set out the arrangements for a six-week consultation on proposed changes to polling districts that were published on the council’s Go Vocal consultation platform.

all voters in Cambridge have such reasonable facilities for voting as are possible in the circumstances, and so far as is achievable, every polling station that we are responsible for is accessible to voters who are disabled.

The report included the proposed changes, maps, and comments from the consultation. The proposed changes included the merging of the EDK polling district in the Coleridge ward into the EBK polling district. The report states that this change would not result in a change of polling station, with voters continuing to vote at Lichfield Hall, Lichfield Road.

The report proposed to move voters in the current KDK polling district in the Queen Edith’s ward to the KAK polling district. This change would result in them voting at The Wilkinson Room, St John the Evangelist, Hills Road at future elections, instead of St James’s Church, Wulfstan Way.

The report also proposed a change that would see properties in the BAB polling district in the Arbury ward move to the BCB polling district. Voters in those properties would continue to vote at the Good Shepherd Church Hall, Mansel Way.

Statement of Accounts 2022-23

The committee received a report from Isabel Brittain, the Interim Deputy S151 Officer¹, on the 2022-23 Statement of Accounts.

The report stated that the committee was required to approve the accounts. It noted the Reset and Recovery legislation and said that a disclaimer of opinion would be issued by the external auditors, EY, because of time constraints imposed by the backstop date for publication of the accounts.

The report stated that:

the disclaimed opinion being issued does not indicate any identified shortcomings or inaccuracies in the Authority’s accounts, nor any undue delay to the draft accounts being available for audit.

It included a copy of the unaudited accounts and the Completion Report for those Charged with Governance. The report recommended that the chair of the meeting be authorised to sign the Management representation letter.

Annual Governance Statement and Local Code of Governance

The committee was scheduled to consider a report from Jonathan Tully, Head of the Shared Internal Audit Service. This report provided the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) and an updated Local Code of Governance. The report stated that the AGS must be approved before the Statement of Accounts, as required by the Accounts and Audit Regulations.

The report outlined the Council's arrangements for compiling, reporting on, and signing the AGS, including the review of effectiveness for the 2022/2023 financial year. The report then provided details of each of the seven core principles and sub-principles of the Local Code of Corporate Governance, as set out by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE).

The report stated that the Code includes the Seven principles of public life, including:

Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability, Openness, Honesty, Leadership

The report provided details of the Head of Internal Audit Opinion, including the following:

It is the opinion of the Head of Internal Audit that, taking into account all available evidence, reasonable assurance may be awarded over the adequacy and effectiveness of the Council’s overall internal control environment during the financial year 2022/2023, and this remains at a similar level to the previous year.

The report concluded that the Council has complied with its Code and that no significant governance issues were identified from the review of effectiveness.

The committee was asked to approve the AGS and endorse the amendments to the Local Code of Corporate Governance.