The Runnymede Borough Council's Standards and Audit Committee met on 23 September 2025, to discuss a range of issues including the renewal of the corporate counter fraud contract, the 2025 self-assessment against the Best Value duty, and an update on actions to address recommendations from the 2024 LGA Corporate Peer Challenge. The committee approved recommending the renewal of the counter fraud contract to the Corporate Management Committee.

Counter Fraud Service Contract

The committee agreed to recommend to the Corporate Management Committee that Runnymede Borough Council renew its contract with Reigate and Banstead Borough Council (RBBC) for counter-fraud services for 2025/26 and 2026/27, at a total cost of £309,715. They also recommended a supplementary estimate of £9,180 for 2025/26 to cover increased contract costs, split 80/20 between the Housing Revenue Account (£7,344) and the General Fund (£1,836), following consultation with the Chair of the Housing Committee.

The report noted that in 2014, the government transferred responsibility for Housing Benefit Fraud investigation to the Department for Work and Pensions, but Runnymede Council continued to fund its own fraud investigation to combat risk in other areas. The agreement with RBBC provided the council with 3 full time equivalent staff. The figures for 2024/25 showed the best return to date for the council's counter fraud work, with 662 cases investigated and closed, with 91 (13.7%) showing a positive outcome for fraud, resulting in total savings of £875,014.89.

The committee considered other options, including decreasing resources applied to the contract, seeking an alternative provider, or employing its own counter fraud team, but these were not recommended.

Update on the 2024 LGA Corporate Peer Challenge

The committee reviewed the progress made in delivering the action plan from the 2024 Local Government Association (LGA) Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC), which was approved by the full council in December 2024. The team proposed seven recommendations in the final CPC report as an outcome of the 2024 CPC visit.

The report noted that of the 20 actions identified in the action plan:

• eight actions had been completed
• six actions were core activity and therefore were ongoing and monitored as part of team and individual performance review
• three actions remained in progress and were due to complete by Sept 2025
• two actions were stopped in light of local government reorganisation
• one action was not yet due

The committee noted that a follow-up visit from the CPC Peer team was scheduled to commence the day after the committee meeting.

Self-Assessment Against the Best Value Duty 2025

The committee were informed of the results of the 2025 self-assessment against the council's Best Value duty, under the Local Government Act 1999¹. The assessment was measured against 69 characteristics across seven themes identified in statutory guidance.

Officers reported that the updated assessment involved engagement across the organisation, and a database of over 400 documents contained evidence of the work undertaken. The resulting 'heatmap' illustrated that clear improvements had been made.

Officers highlighted that Complaints Handling had moved from Yellow to Dark Green (which was a positive change), following the introduction of a new system aligned with Ombudsman standards. In addition, the Corporate Peer Challenge was delivered, noting a follow up visit was imminent.

The committee noted actions in relation to the staff My Experience Matters survey and agreed that Innovative Service Design was evidenced for example with the award-nominated financial inclusion and debt recovery work in the Revenue and benefits team as well as the introduction of steps to use AI technology to support Officers.

Officers confirmed that owing to local government reorganisation across Surrey, it was proposed not to repeat the self-assessment in 2026/27, and instead focus on ensuring readiness for transition to the new unitary authority.

External Quality Assessment

The committee received a report concerning the External Quality Assessment of the council's internal auditors, the Southern Internal Audit Partnership (SIAP). The committee was advised that under the Global Internal Audit Standards in the UK Public Sector², an external quality assessment had to take place every five years, performed by an independent and qualified assessor or assessment team.

The committee noted that SIAP had opted for conducting a Self Assessment with Independent Validation (SAIV), and had chosen JC Audit Training Ltd to provide the external quality assessment. The assessment would be likely to take place in November/December 2025, following SIAP's own self assessment over the summer of 2025. Members noted that a copy of the external assessor's report and Action Plan would be presented at a future meeting of the committee.

Internal Audit Strategy 2025-28

The committee received for information SIAP's Internal Audit Strategy for 2025/26. Officers advised that another requirement of the Global Internal Audit Standards in the UK Public Sector was to produce and maintain an annual Internal Audit Strategy, drawn up in consultation with the members and senior management of the authority.

SIAP's officers had undertaken a SWOT analysis to focus on potential areas for development to further enhance their internal audit offering and to remain sustainable, innovative and future focussed. This had resulted in seven objectives on which members and officers were surveyed. Feedback had been analysed and SIAP had settled on there being three top objectives forming the basis of the Internal Audit Strategy: Agile Auditing, Optimisation of Standards, and Data Analytics by Default. Each had supporting initiatives around Engagement, Equipping internal auditors, Empowerment, and Embed.

Officers confirmed that any revisions to the Strategy would be brought back to the committee; such revisions might be in response to, for example, the outcome of local government re-organisation.

Internal Audit Progress Report July 2025

The committee reviewed progress with the internal audit plan for 2025/26. Officers from SIAP had created the progress report in a new format and in accordance with the Global Internal Audit Standards in the UK Public Sector.

The committee's attention was drawn to Section 4 of the SIAP Progress Report concerning resourcing, which stated that there had been some minor slippage to the plan, owing to some vacancies at SIAP. However, officers were confident that their contingency arrangements would mitigate against this, and that successful recruitment was making good progress to enable a timely Annual Conclusion. Officers confirmed that detailed handover notes and a highly documented management system ensured continuity within the team at SIAP.

With regard to the Rolling Work Programme, members were advised that since publication of the agenda the audits on Cyber Security and Asset Management had reached final draft report stage and that fieldwork was complete in respect of the use of Volunteers audit. A draft position statement in respect of Housing Consumer Standards had also been finalised.

Members were initially disappointed by the two 'limited' assurance opinions in respect of Housing Reactive Repairs and Housing Health and Safety. However, the Chair of the Housing Committee was able to provide re-assurance on inspection rates and that a Lift and Stairlifts Policy and Legionella Management Policy had recently been approved. In addition, implementation of recommendations would be tracked and reported to the committee, and SIAP were satisfied that appropriate management actions had been identified and progress being made.

The committee noted an analysis of 'live audit reviews' which recorded only two management actions were currently outstanding, and a new section on performance measures.

Complaints and Compliments Quarter 1 2025/26

The committee reviewed the statistics and narrative in respect of complaints and compliments recorded in the first Quarter of 2025/26 covering the period 1 April – 30 June 2025.

The committee noted a spike in complaints for Quarter 1 with a total of 95 being recorded on the central database compared with a little less than half that number in Quarter 1 of the previous year. Of these, 55 were for Environmental Services (DSO). Members were assured that work had been undertaken to address this including more information on the website with regard to service disruption. It was noted that customers often lodged a complaint instead of using the 'report it' function. To help manage this, an agreed threshold between service requests and complaints being employed with regard to refuse and recycling missed collections.

Members noted the service area statistics which included, where held, the number of complaints which were not accepted for one of the reasons as approved by the Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code and set out in their required reporting arrangements.

Officers reported more examples of service improvements being recorded by complaint handlers, with a number of these set out in the report. These provided good lessons to be learned and shared across the organisation both strategically and in specific operational areas.

In respect of compliments, the committee noted that 23 had been recorded in Quarter 1 and members were pleased by the examples set out in the exempt Appendix.