The Audit and Governance Committee of St Helens Council met on 22 September 2025, and members reviewed the external audit progress, the strategic risk register, and the information governance report. The committee approved the revised Code of Corporate Governance and noted the committee work programme for 2025/26.

Strategic Risk Update

The committee noted the current version of the Strategic Risk Register (SRR), as well as changes made since the last report in March 2025. They agreed that any requests for audit deep dives into risks on the register should be sent to the chair by email, and that the next SRR report should include more details around mitigation strategies.

It was noted that the number of strategic risks on the SRR had remained stable at nine, but recent changes included:

• De-escalating the risk SR14, regarding the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on health inequalities, to be managed via directorate risk.
• Assessing the regeneration delivery risk SR04 as higher due to the progression of the regeneration programme.
• Assessing the social care provider failure risk SR06b as having a lower likelihood for adults.
• Adding two new risks to the SRR: SR16, the impact of climate change, and SR17, community cohesion.

During discussion, it was agreed that the next SRR update would provide more detail on mitigation, as some risks were descriptive but lacked detail in this area.

External Audit Progress Report

The committee noted the auditor's report from Grant Thornton UK LLP (Grant Thornton), which provided an update on audit progress as of September 2025, and summarised emerging issues and developments relevant to the council.

The report noted that the statutory accounts deadline was 30 June, but the council was only able to submit their statements on 24 July 2025, with supporting working papers following later. The audit commenced upon receipt of the financial statements, and work is in progress across all identified areas of significant risk, including:

• management override of controls
• valuation of Land & buildings
• valuation of the defined benefit net pension liability

• implementation of IFRS 16 Leases[^1]

  [^1]: IFRS 16 Leases specifies how to recognise, measure, present and disclose leases. The standard provides a single lessee accounting model, requiring lessees to recognise assets and liabilities for all leases unless the lease term is 12 months or less or the underlying asset has a low value.

The report also noted that the delay in receiving the accounts has delayed the audit, and the Audit Findings Report will now be presented at the November committee meeting.

Information Governance Report 2024-2025

The committee noted the Information Governance Report 2024-2025, which summarised progress made during the financial year to improve the council's compliance against the standards set in the Accountability Framework¹. The committee also agreed to explore suggestions about raising staff motivation to complete mandatory data protection e-learning training, and that qualitative measuring for data breaches would be addressed through work being undertaken with Internal Audit.

Some suggestions were made to encourage staff to complete mandatory e-learning training for data protection, which is an annual requirement. In response to a question about qualitative measuring being introduced for data breaches, it was confirmed that this would be addressed though work being undertaken with Internal Audit and would be incorporated in audit schedules.

Revised Code of Corporate Governance

The committee approved the revised Code of Corporate Governance to ensure compliance with best practice from Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants and Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (CIPFA/SOLACE). The Director of Legal & Governance was authorised to make minor amendments to the code as necessary to reflect legislative and organisational changes. More substantive amendments would be considered by the committee before the annual review.

Members requested a version of the Code of Corporate Governance be circulated to indicate the proposed changes highlighted, and that a link to the council's website with the published revised Code of Corporate Governance document be shared with Parish Council Clerks for information.

Committee Work Programme 2025/26

The committee noted the work programme for 2025/26 and were requested to consider and inform of any relevant training topics that they wished to receive.