Agenda item

To review the committee work programme.

The committee received the Joint Audit and Governance work programme, and the democratic services officer informed the committee about the items that were scheduled to come to the next committee meeting, on 26 September 2023, and for the other Joint Audit and Governance Committee meetings in the remainder of the municipal year 2022/23.

It was noted that an additional meeting of the Joint Audit and Governance Committee may be held on the 11 September 2023 in order to cover the statement of accounts 2021/22. However, this will be confirmed by the head of finance at a later date, following ongoing discussions with EY.

Members then agreed to add an additional item to the full meeting in September to cover the information (including cyber) security audit item and to ask that the IT programmes manager attends to respond to their questions. The internal audit and risk manager also informed members that items such as these would come to the committee in the internal audit update report but that they could be expanded upon as separate agenda items if there was specific interest from members for more information about the area.

On the statement of accounts, the head of finance provided reasons for the delay in them being seen by the committee and discussed how there were national issues. He also informed members that only 19 per cent of councils had finalised their 2021/22 statement of accounts and believes that there are proposals being put to the secretary of state for the reset of local authority accounts, details of which could be put into a report that could come to the committee in September, and that this could be added to the work programme. Members also asked as to how the problem with the statement of accounts emerged in the first instance, and the head of finance clarified that the delays were caused as the work on the previous statement of accounts was still underway when the current statement of accounts needed to be worked on and that this interference was common across local authorities. He also noted that a review into local authority audits in November 2020 came to the committee covering those issues, and encouraged members to read the report, which would be recirculated to members. Richard Tebbs, the external auditor also contributed by stating that when there are auditing issues the basic requirements for an audit increase, so more and more is needed in order to meet the minimum standards and that this effected their timetables.

In response to the uncertainty about when the Health and Safety report was coming to the committee, the democratic services officer agreed to follow this up and update the work programme when a date was agreed. In addition, members requested that mental health be a factor in the report when it did come to the committee.

The committee then asked about whether partnership decisions, such as for the Future Oxfordshire Partnership, could be included in the audit work. Although there were some discussions about the terms of reference for the committee and how the scrutiny committee were the ones to scrutinise those partnerships decisions, the internal audit and risk manager mentioned that the internal audit could map out how those decisions were made and, in that way, they could be included, but she would confirm if this was the case.

Finally, members asked if the governance process, including its comparison to other councils, was something that could be brought to the committee and the internal audit and risk manager confirmed that this would be in a report coming to the next full meeting in September as this was an area where the need for an audit was identified. Members then also mentioned that housing was a potential area for examination in the future.

Overall, as members were satisfied with the work programmes and their proposed additions, they agreed to note it. 

RESOLVED: to note the work programme.