The Audit Committee of Watford Borough Council met on 1 October 2025 to discuss the Shared Internal Audit Service (SIAS) annual report, the progress of the SIAS audit plan, an update to the statement of accounts, and the treasury management end of year report. The committee was also scheduled to look at minimum revenue provision and prudential indicators. Councillor Iain Sharpe, Chair of Audit Committee, was present alongside other councillors and officers including Gurmeet Parmar, Isabel Brittain, Rob Thurlow, Laura MacMillan, Alison Kennett and Chris Wood.

SIAS Annual Report

The Audit Committee was scheduled to consider the SIAS Annual Report for 2024-25. According to the report's introduction by Chris Wood, Head of Assurance for SIAS, the report was intended to foster engagement, dialogue and feedback. The report included information on:

• achieving 95% of billable days and 91% of planned projects to draft report stage
• a shared learning culture embedded through the team
• managing the challenges of auditing in a changing environment
• developing staff skills
• customer satisfaction, with 95% of customers giving a satisfactory or higher rating
• performance outcomes, with 221 assurance and other projects completed
• performance indicators
• financial performance
• future developments, including preparations for an external quality assessment
• SIAS board members

SIAS Progress Against the 2025-26 Audit Plan

The Audit Committee was scheduled to review a report from the Client Audit Manager on the progress of the SIAS against the 2025-26 audit plan. The report included:

• progress made against the annual internal audit plan
• proposed amendments to the audit plan
• the implementation status of outstanding internal audit recommendations
• an update on performance management

As of 12 September 2025, 20% of the 2025/26 Audit Plan days had been delivered. The following audits had been finalised since the June 2025 Audit Committee:

The report also summarised progress in the implementation of all outstanding internal audit recommendations as of 12 September 2025:

One change to the Internal Audit Plan was proposed: the review of External Audit Financial Recommendations (not VFM¹) from the Shared Services Plan was scheduled to be cancelled.

Statement of Accounts 2024-25 Update

The Audit Committee was scheduled to consider an update on the 2024-25 Statement of Accounts. According to the report, the draft statement of accounts for 2024/25 was originally published on 30 June 2025, and a period of public inspection ran from 1 July to 11 August 2025. The external audit of accounts was planned to begin at the end of September 2025. The Chief Finance Officer had commissioned a review of the Council's Minimum Revenue Provision policy and calculations, and as a result, amendments to the accounts were required to reflect the amount of MRP to be charged for 2024/25 and for historic adjustments. As a consequence of the two reviews completed, the draft accounts were scheduled to be re-issued. Other than revisions to MRP, changes were scheduled to be made to reflect:

• Property Valuations received too late for inclusion in the original draft
• Final Actuarial reports relating to the Defined Benefit Pension Scheme
• Immaterial adjustments for completeness and accuracy.

A new period of public inspection was scheduled to commence on the working day following the publication of the re-issued draft statement of accounts.

Minimum Revenue Provision and Prudential Indicators

A report on the Minimum Revenue Provision and Prudential Indicators was scheduled to be discussed, but the report itself was marked 'to follow' on the agenda.

Treasury Management - End of Year Report 2024/25

The Audit Committee was scheduled to review the Treasury Management End-of-Year Report 2024/25. According to the report, the Council had complied with its regulatory requirements for treasury management, and that treasury management activities had complied with the limits and indicators set in the 2024/25 Treasury Management Strategy with limited exceptions. Total interest payable on loans was £1.36m against a budget of £2.21m, and the overall performance of treasury investments was strong, yielding an average return of 5.14% during the year, which exceeded the benchmark SONIA² average of 4.90%. Total investment income was £1.82m, against a budget of £0.64m. The report also provided details of a small breach of investment limits in January 2025, which was the result of an administrative oversight, and stated that revised procedures had been introduced to mitigate the risk of this happening again.