Purpose of the review

1. This is the half yearly progress review of the corporate risk registers for South Oxfordshire District Council and Vale of White Horse District Council. This review follows on from the joint audit and governance committee report in January 2022.

2. The contact officers are Yvonne Cutler Greaves, Assurance Team Leader and Allison Holliday Risk and Insurance Officer for South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC) and Vale of White Horse District Council (VoWHDC).

Strategic Objectives

3. Openness and accountability in South Oxfordshire.

4. Working in an open and inclusive way in the Vale of White Horse.

Background

5. The corporate risk registers attached have been compiled as outlined in the risk management framework and reviewed and updated with individual Heads of Service.

6. There are a total of 16 risks (23 last report) on the South Oxfordshire District Council corporate risk register and 16 risks (25 last report) on the Vale of White Horse District Council corporate risk register.

7. The top nine risks for South Oxfordshire District Council are shown below:

Risk ref	Description	Risk score Gross/Net
49	Third party contractors BCP’s and files back-ups are not fit for purpose.	8/8
65	IT Cybersecurity breach due to inadequate security protection of the council’s external website	8/6
2	IT Cybersecurity breach due to inadequate security protection of Software (Zellis/Unit4 etc)	8/6
11	Failure to fulfil the Data Protection legislative requirements.	8/6
9	Failing to have an effective health and safety management system in place.	8/6
58	IT and data security compromised due to remote working and naïve user behaviour	8/6
4	Failure to manage the security of all council owned assets including council offices	7/5
23	Lack of informed and consistent decision making across the council	7/3
66 New Risk	Failure to consider the economic impact on council finances of war in Ukraine	7/3

8. The top eight risks for Vale of White Horse District Council are shown below:

Risk ref	Description	Risk score Gross/Net
50	Third party contractors BCP’s and files back-ups are not fit for purpose.	8/8
67	IT Cybersecurity breach due to inadequate security protection of the council’s external website	8/6
2	IT Cybersecurity breach due to inadequate security protection of Software (Zellis/Unit4 etc)	8/6
11	Failure to fulfil the Data Protection legislative requirements.	8/6
9	Failing to have an effective health and safety management system in place.	8/6
62	IT and data security compromised due to remote working and naïve user behaviour	8/6
4	Failure to manage the security of all council owned assets including council offices	7/3
68 New Risk	Failure to consider the economic impact on council finances of war in Ukraine	7/3

9. One Risk has increased the net risk score.

Risk ref South/Vale	Description	Risk score Gross/Net
49/50	Third party contractors BCP’s and files back-ups are not fit for purpose.	8/8

10. Two risks have reduced their net risk score in South Oxfordshire District Council and in Vale of White Horse District Council since last reported in January 2022:

Risk ref South/Vale	Description	Risk score Gross/Net
23/22	Lack of informed and consistent decision making	7/3
41/41	Major incident in the district - failure to adequately respond to a major incident affecting our residents	5/3

11. There are two new risks for South Oxfordshire District Council and Vale of White Horse District Council:

Risk ref South/Vale	Description	Risk score Gross/Net
66/68	Failure to consider the economic impact on council finances of war in Ukraine	7/2
67/69	Failure to support and equip staff for hybrid working	5/3

12. Three risks have been successfully mitigated and completed in South Oxfordshire District Council and four risks have been successfully mitigated in Vale of White Horse District Council

Risk ref South/Vale	Description
8/8	Failure to attract and recruit staff with the necessary skills
64 Vale only	Failure to eliminate or significantly reduce revenue budget funding gap
42/47	Failure to communicate with our residents
7/7	Poor staff morale and wellbeing

13. Seven risks in South Oxfordshire District Council and Eight in Vale of White Horse District Council have been returned to the appropriate service area risk registers for review:

Risk ref South/Vale	Description
18/17	Failure to realise future funding for Garden Communities.
26/25	Lack of asset management expertise of council owned land and property portfolios
63/66	Failure to deliver on Joint local planning policy
24/24	Failure to maintain a consistent standard of customer service
42/47	Failure to engage and communicate with our residents
19/18	Failure to capitalise on and influence national initiatives that benefit the districts
62/65	Government actions in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc a
46 (Vale only)	Abingdon reservoir plans result in a financial impact for the council

Financial Implications

14. There are financial implications attached to managing the risks outlined in the corporate risk registers, and risk owners are responsible for ensuring costs of mitigation are proportionate to the risk exposure.

Legal Implications

15. None.

Risks

16. Risk identification is an integral part of this progress review.

Other Implications

17. None

Attached:

· South Corporate Risk Register Jul 2022

· Vale Corporate Risk Register Jul 2022

Joint Audit and Governance Committee

Report of the Head of Policy and Programmes Author: Yvonne Cutler Greaves Telephone: 07917 088357 E-mail: yvonne.cutlergreaves@southandvale.gov.uk South cabinet member responsible: Councillor Andrea Powell		AGENDA ITEM 11
E-mail: andrea.powell@southoxon.gov.uk Telephone: 07882 584120 Vale cabinet member responsible: Councillor Debby Hallett Telephone: 07545 241013 E-mail: debby.hallett@whitehorsedc.gov.uk To: Joint Audit and Governance Committee DATE: 5 July 2022

Joint Audit and Governance Committee