The Eastbourne Borough Council Audit and Governance Committee met on 11 September 2025 to discuss external audits, treasury management, risk management, debt processes and internal audit and counter fraud activity. The committee was also scheduled to receive an update from the Head of ICT on IT security and data management. The meeting was scheduled to take place at the Eastbourne Town Hall.

Strategic Risk Register

The committee was scheduled to discuss the Corporate Management Team's quarterly review of the strategic risk register. The strategic risk register is a high-level document that records the key risks facing the council, defined as those risks that would prevent the authority from achieving its overall strategies and objectives.

The report pack included a table showing the direction of travel for the past three years, and the report noted that, following comments made by Councillor Christina Ewbank, Chair of Audit and Governance Committee, the Corporate Management Team was asked to consider adding comments around aged debt to the risk register. It was agreed that the following be added to SR_002 Changes to the economic environment makes the Council economically less sustainable:

• Description 7. - The aged debt trend reflects the wider economic pressures on low income households, homelessness and other vulnerable debtors.
• Internal Control 3. - Comprehensive review of sundry debt has been carried out. Some improvements have already been introduced and further work is under way.

Internal Audit and Counter Fraud

The committee was scheduled to receive a summary of the activities of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud for the first quarter of the financial year 2025-2026. During the first quarter, nine follow up reports and eight final reports were issued, with a further four reports out in draft awaiting responses.

The report pack noted two items of interest:

• Payroll: Honoraria and Acting-Up Payments – the recommendations originally made came from the annual reviews of Payroll. At the second follow up carried out in June, it was found that a number of honoraria payments were not being awarded in line with the Honorarium Policy, and the assurance level was reduced to Partial.
• Arts and Artefacts – this review was given Minimal assurance. It was found that no one Officer had overall oversight of, or responsibility for, arts and artefacts, and that one collection on loan outside the Council was not insured by the Council nor the organisation to which it is on long-term loan.

The report pack also included a list of all the audits that are still subject to follow up reviews, and a list of all outstanding recommendations from operational audit reviews, including latest responses from managers.

The report pack stated that the Counter Fraud team continues to target the high risk and value areas impacting the Council, in particular tenancy and revenue fraud. The team have also undertaken income generating work around Council Tax discounts/exemptions and are currently still processing the large increase in Right to Buy applications following the announcement of changes to the scheme in the Autumn 2024 budget.

The report pack included a table showing the savings made by the Counter Fraud team in 2025-2026, and statements on the governance of companies.

The committee was also scheduled to consider and approve the Internal Audit Charter, Code of Ethics for Internal Auditors, Quality Assurance and Improvement Programme for Internal Audit and the Internal Audit Strategy 2025-2028.

Treasury Management

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on investment and borrowing activities in the first quarter of the year. The report pack included an economic update provided by MUFG, the Council's Treasury Management advisers, for the quarter ending June 2025, including information on GDP, growth, employment, inflation and borrowing rates.

The report pack noted that the bank rate was cut from 4.25% to 4% on 7 August 2025, and the next reduction is expected in February 2026 to 3.75%.

The report pack also included details of short term borrowing as of 30 June 2025, and prudential and treasury indicators.

The report stated that officers are exploring the opportunity of premature repayment of long-dated PWLB borrowing, and are reviewing an opportunity to increase the current discount rate and reprofile the MRP repayment schedule¹.

External Audit Update

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on progress to complete the external audit of draft financial statements for 2024/25, and on external audit recommendations identified through the external auditors' annual report.

The Council's Draft Financial Statements were published on 30 June in line with statutory requirements, and the audit of the Council's Draft Financial Statement commenced in early July based on the Audit Plan set out by Grant Thornton at the June meeting of this committee.

The report pack included an action plan containing 44 separate recommendations, with 41 complete, 2 in place, and 1 paused due to LGR considerations².

Debt Processes

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the review of debt processes across Eastbourne Borough Council. The report pack stated that work has been ongoing since December 2024 around the streamlining of debt processes, and that a review of systems, processes and automation began in April 2025 to improve the monitoring and reporting on the debt position.

The report pack included a summary of the current debt position categorised by department, and a breakdown of council tax billing and the share per preceptor³.

The report pack stated that a review is currently under way on the debt listed as housing needs and standards, and that as part of the housing needs and standards review each debtor is being reviewed to determine if repayments are being made at an appropriate level and if not further action will be considered.