Audit and Governance Committee - Tuesday 21 July 2026, 10:00am

Audit and Governance Committee
Tuesday, 21st July 2026 at 10:00am

Speaking:

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Cllr Matthew Walsh

1 Apologies

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Leslie Ashton - Principal Committees and Governance Services Officer
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Leslie Ashton - Principal Committees and Governance Services Officer
Cllr Kelly Thornton
Cllr Stuart Wilson
Cllr Chris Poll
Cllr Anna Crabtree
Cllr David Moore
Cllr Simon Rouse
Sarah Brown - KPMG
Alexander Prestridge - Audit Delivery Manager
Chris Ward - Senior Member Services and Governance Officer
Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer
Cllr Robert Carington
Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer
David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer
Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager
Jo Baschnonga
Russell Heppleston - Head of Business Assurance and Chief Auditor
Cllr Matthew Walsh

2 Appointment of Vice-Chairman

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3 Declarations of interest

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4 Minutes

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Cllr Simon Rouse
Cllr Matthew Walsh

5 Treasury Management Annual Report 2025/26

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Report for Treasury Management Annual Report 2025/26

Cllr Robert Carington
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Simon Rouse
Cllr Robert Carington
David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer
Cllr Simon Rouse
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Stuart Wilson
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer
Cllr Stuart Wilson
Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer
Cllr Stuart Wilson
Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer
Cllr Matthew Walsh
David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer
Cllr Matthew Walsh
David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Stuart Wilson
Cllr Robert Carington
Cllr Stuart Wilson
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Anna Crabtree
Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Kelly Thornton
Cllr Robert Carington
Cllr Kelly Thornton
Cllr Robert Carington
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Chris Poll
Cllr Robert Carington
Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer
David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer
Cllr Chris Poll
Cllr Robert Carington
Cllr Matthew Walsh

6 Chief Auditor’s Annual Audit Opinion 2025/26

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Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Simon Rouse
Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager
Cllr Simon Rouse
Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager
Russell Heppleston - Head of Business Assurance and Chief Auditor
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Stuart Wilson
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Robert Carington
Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager
Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr David Moore
Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Anna Crabtree
Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager
Cllr Matthew Walsh

7 Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Plan 2026/27

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Russell Heppleston - Head of Business Assurance and Chief Auditor
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Stuart Wilson
Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager
Cllr Stuart Wilson
Cllr Matthew Walsh

8 The achievement of a ' Substantial' Chief Internal Auditor's annual opinion.

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Cllr Robert Carington
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Stuart Wilson
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Chris Poll
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Sarah Brown - KPMG
David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer
Cllr Matthew Walsh

9 Appointments to Risk Management Group

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10 Work Programme

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A and G Work Programme 26 - 27

Leslie Ashton - Principal Committees and Governance Services Officer
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Simon Rouse
Russell Heppleston - Head of Business Assurance and Chief Auditor
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Cllr Stuart Wilson
Cllr Matthew Walsh
Leslie Ashton - Principal Committees and Governance Services Officer
Cllr Matthew Walsh

11 Action Log

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Action Log

12 Date of the next meeting

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13 Exclusion of the public

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Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically generated, so it may contain errors. Please view the webcast to confirm whether the content is accurate.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:00:01

Well, good morning, everybody and welcome to the Audit and Governance Committee meeting

here at the Gateway.

A particular warm welcome to those watching on webcast and a reminder to members here

that this meeting is being recorded.

1 Apologies

Moving on to agenda item one, apologies.

Thank you, Chairman.

Leslie Ashton - Principal Committees and Governance Services Officer - 0:00:23

We received apologies from Councillors Dillon, Mehta and Saffarasraja.

Thank you.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:00:29

members content with those.

Thank you.

Okay, I thought as this is the first meeting

of the Audit and Governance Committee for the new year,

if we took the opportunity to go round the room

and introduce ourselves.

So starting with me, I'm Councillor Matthew,

though feel free to call me Matt,

Walsh, Chairman of Audit and Governance

and member for Princess Risborough.

Leslie Ashton, Committee and Governance Officer.

Leslie Ashton - Principal Committees and Governance Services Officer - 0:00:57

Cllr Kelly Thornton - 0:00:59

Councillor Kelly Thornton, Member for Amherst and Cheshire and Boys.

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 0:01:04

Good morning, Councillor Stu Wilson, Member for Flackewell Heath and the Woburns.

Cllr Chris Poll - 0:01:08

Good morning, Councillor Chris Pole, Member for Ivinghove.

Cllr Anna Crabtree - 0:01:12

Good morning, I'm Councillor Anna Crabtree and I'm Member for Marlborough.

Cllr David Moore - 0:01:17

Good morning everyone, I'm Councillor David Moore and I represent the Farnons Estate Poachers.

Cllr Simon Rouse - 0:01:22

Good morning, Councillor Simon Rouse representing Chuffles and Giles, a little chuffled.

Sarah Brown - KPMG - 0:01:28

Hello, I'm Sarah Brown, I'm a partner with KPMG, your external auditors.

Alexander Prestridge - Audit Delivery Manager - 0:01:34

Good morning, I'm Alex Prestridge, the audit delivery manager working with Russell.

Chris Ward - Senior Member Services and Governance Officer - 0:01:40

Chris Ward, senior member services and governance officer.

Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer - 0:01:44

Good morning, I'm Glen Watson, senior governance manager and a deputy monitoring officer.

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:01:50

Good morning, I'm Councillor Robert Carrington.

I'm an award member for Ridgeway West and cabinet member for resources.

Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer - 0:01:57

I'm Fiona Jump, I'm the Deputy Chief Finance Officer.

David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer - 0:02:01

David Skinner, Service Director of Finance and Section 151 Officer.

Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager - 0:02:09

And I'm Selina Harlock, Head of Quality and Performance, former interim Head of Business

Assurance.

Jo Baschnonga - 0:02:15

Good morning, Jo Bashnonger, Service Director, Major Projects and Business Assurance, falls

within my remit.

Russell Heppleston - Head of Business Assurance and Chief Auditor - 0:02:21

Good morning, I'm Russell Hippelstern, the Councillor's Chief Auditor and Head of Business

Assurance.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:02:28

Brilliant, thank you all very much for the introductions and for the new members of the

Audit and Governance Committee.

Welcome.

2 Appointment of Vice-Chairman

We will now move on to Agenda Item 2, which is Appointment of the Vice Chairman.

I am pleased to confirm that I have appointed Councillor Dev Dillon as Vice Chairman of

the Audit and Governance Committee.

Welcome, Dev.

I know he sent these apologies today.

3 Declarations of interest

Gender item three, declarations of interest.

Do members have any declarations of interest?

Thank you.

Noted.

4 Minutes

We then move on to gender item four,

which is minutes to approve as a correct record

the minutes of the meetings held on the 19th and 20th of May.

Councillor Rouse.

Thank you.

For the minutes of,

Cllr Simon Rouse - 0:03:12

I'm trying to find the date now.

19th.

The 19th of May.

I think it's to do with a full stop,

or the lack of a full stop.

But just on the PMO audit item,

sorry, I'm just going back to it now.

Yeah, so it's the one, two, third bullet down.

The committee agreed that audit deferrals

needed to be in exceptional circumstances only,

and where pieces of work had not been delivered

in a certain time, or a service structure review,

they were not necessarily adequate reasons to defer.

I think it needs a full stopover only,

and then remove the and so that it's clear

that where pieces of work had not been delivered

in a certain time or service or subject to a structure review,

they were not necessarily adequate reasons to defer.

Otherwise, you could misread that,

that those are adequate reasons to defer.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, I mean, I'm content with that.

Other members that were present at the time.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:04:08

Any, no.

You're happy to make that amendment.

Okay, so on the basis that we make that amendment is everybody content with the minutes

Thank you. Okay that takes us on to

Agenda item five which is the Treasury management report for

5 Treasury Management Annual Report 2025/26

2025 2026

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:04:30

Council character, would you like to introduce this?

Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, and I present to you today the treasury management annual report 25 26

which has, for the benefit of the newer members

of the committee, this is a statutory report

on the council's treasury management performance.

This covers council investment borrowing

and capital financing requirements

for the last financial year,

which ended on the 31st of March, 2026.

In summary, overall treasury management activity

exceeded budgeted forecasts with a total favourable variance

of 12 .08 million pounds across external interest payments

and investment income received.

The reason for this strong performance

was support by higher than expected cash balances

available for short term investments

due to large one off income receipts,

re -profiling of the capital programme

and a slowing of interest rate reduction

compared to forecast.

All investment activity throughout the year

has confirmed fully to the approved strategy

which was first approved by this committee

during their two meetings and then by full council

in February of this year.

On the prudential indicators,

the council has performed strongly against these.

These are a series of performance measures

which are designed to demonstrate the affordability

of the council's financing costs,

external debt, and capital expenditure.

All indicators are showing a green at year end.

On the net financing need for capital expenditure,

This is reduced compared to forecast.

This shows us capital expenditure

and related income are more equally matched

and reduces the need for capital expenditure to be funded

by borrowing or similar funding sources.

On the affordability ratio

of the council's capital financing costs

to net revenue income, this is improved due to additional

investment returns and above forecast total revenue income

throughout the year.

This is a good sign of financial resilience.

So, in conclusion, it's a strong investment performance through the year.

There's been a reduction in the net financing need and increased affordability,

demonstrate prudent financial governance and sustainability of the capital programme.

For the next steps, orders and governance committee will receive the next update

on treasury management via the mid -year report for 26 -27,

and I think this is going to be in November 26.

and also you'll notice in the report there is a mention

of the main change from the discussions

on treasury management strategy earlier

in the year regarding local authority investments.

There is a reference to this in this report,

but as per the strategy, this is coming back in six months

and that is at your next meeting,

so there will be a separate report just looking at that,

which will be at your next meeting.

So just to avoid any confusion over that matter.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:07:33

Fiona is the author of the report.

Do you wish to add anything?

Nothing further to add, Chairman.

Thank you.

I'll open the floor to members.

Councillor Rouse.

Thank you, Chairman.

So one of the things that when you look at the overperformance,

Cllr Simon Rouse - 0:07:49

the 9 .19, I think it is, million overperformance,

There are one -offs in there that drive particularly the cash position, but there

is a significant component which is higher interest rates for longer, which I

would argue are both structural and foreseeable. So I suppose my question

is certainly over the life of what we'd set for the Treasury

return. You've got good visibility to what the interest rate environment is

are likely to do.

So I suppose my question is, how confident are we

that we understand and are tracking

the structural overperformance versus the one -offs

through cash wins?

And can you give us confidence?

Because I suppose what I'm keen to avoid

is that we're constantly overachieving on investment

performance and giving ourselves, effectively,

a false comfort around where the budget and budget position ends up.

And I suppose what I don't get from the report is enough visibility about how much of this

we genuinely think is structural versus one -off.

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:08:58

I think I'll just start on sort of the overarching thing then I'll hand over to Dave and Fiona

for the more detailed answer.

But I mean the counter to the question there regarding being over cautious is the danger

of being over -reliant.

The Council on purpose takes a prudent approach to this

because if we are too overly reliant on this,

this becomes a crutch and we are living

in a very, very uncertain world,

as demonstrated very aptly over the last 12 hours

by our new Prime Minister and his new Chancellor

making an announcement that they're going to cut VAT

and saying it's going to be funded

through a cut in judicial IDs.

and then turns out that was never actually funded,

so they're making a cut from something which isn't funded.

So we're living in times where you really do need

to be cautious and also, if you can remember,

five years ago, UK gilts were at about 0 .04%,

and borrowing, that has now jumped up to 5%.

If you were able to predict that, I think well done to you,

but I think, as said, we are in a world

where we do need to be very prudent.

I know that doesn't answer the overall question

on the structures, which I will now hand over today,

but I want to over -light the position

that we must be prudent here.

David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer - 0:10:24

So in terms of that we do take professional external advice

in terms of the forecast interest rates

in terms of going through both in terms of the Bank of England

base rate and then what they think the market more generally

will will provide and we use that to inform the forecast is Councillor

Carrington says we then take a kind of a prudent view in terms of that we don't

want to maximise that because of the the risks that that entails and we don't

want to become dependent on on that on that interest in terms of kind of

bearing so things council can't say nothing as you said councillor Rouss

then about nine million pounds there would be about 2 % on council tax in terms of kind

of going through.

And therefore then that fluctuation in terms of if interest rates are depleted or the cash

reserves depleted, therefore that would be 2 % in terms that we'd have to then raise in

council tax or come up with compensating savings in order to deliver.

So we always take a very prudent view in terms of the interest rates that will be achieved

and then hope to over exceed those.

Cllr Simon Rouse - 0:11:30

So I really appreciated the lecture on prudence, thank you for that.

It doesn't get away from the fact that ongoing overachievement of investment

income ought to lead us to just challenge whether we're being,

there is such a thing as over prudence as well.

And I suppose what I would just find helpful in future reports is a breakdown

of what is structurally driven versus one -off cash.

and we are the one offs in there,

but particularly it's the cash position

that seems to have benefited this time.

Because I do think, yeah, we tend to have this report

come to the committee, we tend to observe

the overperformance, the overperformance is then used

quite rightly to deal with underspends

and overspends elsewhere, but I think for us to understand

whether the Treasury performance,

what the true Treasury performance is,

I think that separation is important

for us to get visibility to, Chairman,

so I'd just welcome that in a future report.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:12:23

I think it's a good idea to have a lot of

Thank you.

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 0:12:27

Thank you, Chairman. A couple of different questions, if I

may. One, picking up a similar theme to

Councillor Rouse, and it's a topic I think we've picked up

before, which is the impact of capital profiling on interest

delivery and it's a similar but slightly different lens or more end of the telescope is

had we known in terms of the capital profiling what investment decisions might we have taken at

the time and I suppose as we now look into this year coming and obviously the cabinet papers have

that's just been published for quarter one last night

and looking at capital reprofiling,

is it's almost like what's the opportunity cost

when we're sitting on capital allocated

that perhaps with a track record of reprofiling,

we could have made different investment decisions.

So it's a slightly different question

but from against a very similar theme.

And it comes down to this prudence

and cash flow management.

And I think it's that,

I don't know if I'm gonna get an answer to that question,

but it's almost what's the opportunity cost

had we known about the capital reprofiling

at the beginning of the year against that.

And I'd certainly agree

with Councillor Carrington's observation.

We all remember Liz Truss and Quasi Quattro

when they came in as a new government and the issues that raised.

So I share some of his concerns.

My question is around CCLA.

And I note under Section 5 in the report, under international financial reporting standards

and changing in accounting standards under IFRS 9 and a statutory override delay.

And I just wondered whether or not somebody could explain in layman's terms what the implications

and consequences of a delay to a statutory override.

I know about the one on DSGs, but perhaps this one.

And also what happens to the dividend from the CCLA, because our CCLA investment tracks

roughly the same amount, but we're obviously, I think the report talks to a four and three -quarter

percent dividend per annum but the capital amount is the principal amount remains the

same so what happens to the interest or the dividend from that and where does that go

because it doesn't sit it's not reinvested in that fund it must be swept off somewhere

and put away somewhere so thank you.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:15:22

Thank you Councillor Wilson so I'll come in on your question around the CCLA and I'll

Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer - 0:15:26

over to Dave then in terms of the capital profiling point that you've made.

So just to try and explain the nature of the statutory override and this is to do with

the underlying value of our investments.

So at the moment if there is a decrease in that value from below from what we originally

invested that doesn't hit our books in any way shape or form at the moment.

When if the statutory override were to end we would be required to crystallise that loss

if there was a loss into the council's books.

So effectively that override,

similarly to the dedicated schools grant override,

effectively writes that out of our position.

Now when the statutory override ends,

if there is a loss or a reduction in value

on that original investment, at that point,

we would expect that amount to come

and hit the council's books, so that acts

as a real cost to us.

So in anticipation of that, a decision was taken,

I think it was a couple of years ago now,

to set aside an amount of money,

which is laid out in the report,

in order to plan for that eventual dissolution

of the override.

So we keep a close eye on the value of the original investment to make sure that the

provision that's been put aside remains appropriate.

And as and when there is considered to be a need that actually we might want to adjust

that amount of provision, we would take in a decision around that point through the appropriate

channels.

So that's sort of simple explanation as to what would happen if the override were to

end.

So I hope that clarifies it for you.

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 0:16:47

So if I read that correctly, we invested 20 million and the current value is 18 .75 million,

so there's potential here to 1 .25 million.

That's correct.

Which we have.

So we have 1 million set aside.

Put one side.

1 million.

We have 1 million set aside at the moment.

All right.

So there's a potential shortfall of a quarter of a million.

Potentially if that value was to continue.

Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer - 0:17:09

And the interest or the dividend?

Which is yes.

So the dividend interest comes through as part of the treasury management investment

income so it's swept up in the amounts that we've been discussing earlier today

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 0:17:21

and it's accounted for within our books that way. Would we not given that we

potentially have a quarter million pound shortfall want to be putting that

Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer - 0:17:36

alongside our earmarked reserve or cover for the override? So I think if we if it

as officers if it was a recommendation that actually we wanted to increase that

provision, we would bring forward a funding proposal for doing that at that point.

That may or may not include utilisation of any dividend that we've had through in order

to support that.

So that is something that could be done as and when we felt there was a view that we

actually needed to increase the provision that we've set aside.

At the moment we don't take that view and we very recently had a meeting with the CCLA

just to make sure we're on top of the position there.

So at the moment that's not our recommendation but we obviously keep that under review and

that changes we would bring a decision through.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:18:10

David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer - 0:18:13

Councillor Gruptry. So just in in terms of the capital profiling then obviously

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:18:22

then you'll have seen that the capital profiling over a number of years and we

David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer - 0:18:25

are not the only council that goes through this exercise it gets

reprofiled and gets amended each year that cash is not just sat there dormant

in terms of kind of in low interest bearing accounts then we can move that

money around quite dynamically in terms of inter -money market funds.

So it's always securing significant interest, and you can see that in terms of the returns

that we achieved there and the benchmarking that we've got in terms of against the Sonia

rate.

So you can see that the interest that we're receiving is not wasted and is not taken into

account in terms of that cash refiling, in terms of to fund the capital programme.

we are constantly highlighting the importance

of accurate profiling in terms of from the capital programme

as you can see in terms of the kind of the forward

trajectory there will come a point potentially

where we are gonna have to borrow

and therefore then that's really important

in terms of getting that profiling as accurate as possible

as we go forward so the team are constantly refining

that process as we go through.

It wasn't a suggestion that we're not investing the money.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:19:26

It's the opportunity cost of what we could have invested

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 0:19:29

over and above, so obviously there's probably some

long -term investment decisions we choose not,

or can't make, but it's kind of one of those counterfactual

things that is quite difficult to understand,

but I guess it comes down to accuracy of capital profiling

and cash flow in the first instance to make sure

that we are maximising the income when we can.

And I guess, Councillor Carrington, make sure,

Encourages all his colleagues to get their capital profiling as accurate as possible

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:20:03

That is true and on the revenue side as well all conversations and I would ask you to tune in to next week's

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 0:20:16

Cabinet meeting where we'll be going over the out turn and I will definitely be doing that. I may even turn up

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:20:21

Counts the crabtree

Cllr Anna Crabtree - 0:20:23

Thank you. Um, so my main question relates to the

first prudential indicator which is on table five which is capital expenditure

and the net financing need. So I can see that this year this is graded green like

all of the rest of the indicators although last year it was graded amber

when it was about 13 million this year it's dropped to a negative 2 million

3 million. But between the revised forecast and the actual for the current

year we've seen a 20 million drop in the revenue contribution to capital reserves

So I just wondered what assurance you can offer us about who's making the decisions about the revenue contribution to

capital and reserves when that's happening and what processes are in place to make sure that's done properly

So obviously has a significant impact on how these indicators are being graded

And then just as a little aside

I noticed on the authorised limit that that dropped by 200 million on table 9 and I assume there's a simple answer to that

But I'd be grateful if you could just explain why that's happened. Thank you

Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer - 0:21:30

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Trav Crabtree, for your question.

So firstly, in terms of the revenue contribution to capital, the monitoring of decisions around

that runs through the financial reporting process here.

So it's something that goes through to Cabinet for consideration and ultimately for their

decision.

So that's the governance around that.

So we'll include any variances within the revenue contribution to capital as part of

the reporting through to Cabinet and the decision -making process associated with that.

I think you'd also asked about the authorised limit and why that's dropped significantly.

So we have for a number of, just to explain to everyone the authorised limit, it represents

the maximum amount of borrowing that we are permitted to undertake as a council and that's

something that is set by four council when they approve the treasury management strategy.

So we've had that amount at a particular level for a number of years and as part of the treasury

management strategy for 25, 26.

We've reviewed the level of that to actually think,

to actually more accurately reflect the likely level

of borrowing that we think that we would need to take.

So it's not reflecting anything adverse

in our circumstances.

I think it's more trying to reflect a more accurate

position for the council in terms of the maximum amount

of borrowing we'd want to undertake.

We don't want that to sort of sit at an artificially

high level, we want it to remain at a sensible

and prudent level.

So that's the reason for the drop rather than any sort of external factors that may have led or pushed us to do that

I hope that that's clear

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:22:57

Any further questions from members

Cllr Kelly Thornton - 0:23:04

Thank you, I'm just looking at the risks in sort of local authority lending

You mentioned in the report the council's begun placing deposits with other local authorities and just on this theme of

the state of the world and the state of everyone else's finances, could you give the committee

a bit more information about the minimum financial governance test that the counterparty has

to pass and what would happen if we had deposited money with a council that was collapsing,

for example?

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:23:32

Well, no, thank you very much for the question. And this was, I'm looking at sort of the veterans

of the committee.

This is why we had two meetings of the Treasury Management

Strategy earlier in the year.

So basically what has come out of it,

I mean the strategy we have here,

is that there is a watch list where we have local authorities

are on it and it's green, amber, red.

And we will only lend to those who are green.

Obviously we do not share the list because the local

authorities don't know if they're on it or not,

so there might be some diplomatic issues on that front.

But there is a very stringent structure,

controlled governance structure on this.

The officers make the call.

I, every week, I receive an update on what has happened

in regards to what investments have been made,

if there has been any movement on the watch list,

and then monthly there is a meeting with myself

and the leader, and then every six months,

As I mentioned earlier in my comments, it comes to the audit committee to review this

to review the investments and the watch list.

So as said at the beginning of this item, this will be coming to you at the next committee

meeting.

Cllr Kelly Thornton - 0:24:53

Just on that point, is there a way that we could get the sort of value and duration to

reported to this committee as part of the regular Treasury reporting cycle.

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:25:05

That is going to be coming in six months, not in six months, that's going to be coming

to you at the next meeting as was agreed earlier this year.

Okay, sorry just to confirm, so that's included in that report?

That is included but you will be getting the more detailed breakdown is going to be at

the next meeting.

Okay, great.

In confidential session I may add.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:25:26

Council poll.

Cllr Chris Poll - 0:25:31

Thank you Chairman.

I was just interested in the investment strategy.

As there's been noises from central government about wanting to invest more in the UK rather than globally.

Obviously that position could change with a change of direction under the new government,

but I'd be interested in that.

Could the government, for example, mandate that more investments are made in the UK than

globally?

And on that note, is there anywhere that we wouldn't invest in?

and how long is a typical investment length,

bearing in mind that in the report it says

that 365 days investments were zero.

And then finally, in 2 .3, it refers to,

explained in 2 .10, that 2 .10 is actually under three,

and three has nothing in it then if 2 .10 is so just a little confused.

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:26:46

Thank you for that.

I'll take the first two of it easier and the hard one I will very generously allow Dave

and Fiona to answer.

So on the first one on government and putting pressure on us and trying to change strategy,

yes, yes they can.

as the chairman and myself know fully well,

with the pension fund, which we both sit on,

government, the previous government,

sorry, getting used to the phrase there,

great ambition was to use pension funds

to put investments in the UK,

and they decided very democratically

to take that decision -making away

from the pension funds themselves

by doing this through pooling,

by, we were a member of Brunel,

which passed all of their tests,

but they found somehow wasn't good enough,

so we had to end, and so we spent a whole year

trying to find a new pool,

which we have now done, London City,

but the chairman will know better than me

through his day job.

It was a lot of back and forth within parliament

over the pensions bill,

and I know there's some safeguards were put in,

but yes, and basically the answer to your question is yes,

they very much can do that, and we know the new Prime Minister

has made no secret of his ambition to power up the North,

and he will look at avenues to do it.

Unfortunately, none of us are sitting in Downing Street,

so I can't give you an exact answer

of when that's going to happen and how he's going to do it.

But the simple answer is, yes, they can do that.

And the second one question was in regard to,

is there anyone we don't invest to?

So we follow all the credit ratings and anything which is below AA we will not do.

And then in my answer to Councillor Thornton on the local authorities,

if they're in the amber or the red, we do not do that.

And now for the much harder question, Dave or Fiona, who wants to take that one?

Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer - 0:28:51

So I'll come in on the investment length and

the question of where is paragraph 2 .10.

So I'll start with typical investment length.

So at the moment our investments do tend to be within a year, so they tend to be of duration less than 365 days

but we do have the

ability under the Treasury Management Strategy to invest longer term than that, but in practise at the moment

we don't tend to. The exception to that of course is the CCLA investments

which are property related investments which are much longer term. What we'd say on investment length

is that the parameters for investment are set out in the Treasury Management Strategy.

We review that on an annual basis and that's approved by members.

So there is scope there to adjust the terms in which you are happy as members for us to

place investments on behalf of the council and the treasury management strategy is the

place to do it.

On section 2 .10, well spotted, it's a typo, it should refer to section 2 .6.

So if you look at 2 .6, that should have the information that you're looking for.

David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer - 0:29:50

Just on the point that Councillor Carrington made as well.

So as you say, the government and previous governments

have tried to stimulate additional investment

internally, so inward investment,

using local authorities as a vehicle to try and deliver that.

The main vehicle that they've picked on to do that

has been pension funds in terms of going through

with the caveats and the safeguards

that the counsellors have set out already.

Technically, then they could try and stimulate

the same activity in terms of within Treasury management activities, but so far they haven't

ventured down that path in terms of kind of going through.

And as you can see and remember from the conversations that have previously been held at the Committee,

then we do have some investments overseas in terms of with overseas domicile banks in

terms of going through within the ratings that are set out and approved in terms of

kind of going through, but the majority of our money is held within the UK.

Cllr Chris Poll - 0:30:51

If I may, so that's a bit concerning Mr Skinner and now this is a political question so I

won't ask you to come back on it.

But bearing in mind our experience of the revenue support grant and how that negatively

affected us, Councillor Carrington, is that a possibility that our prudence with Treasury

management and also our pension fund could then be used to,

or diverted to invest in other areas where it may not be so

advantageous for us as a rate of return?

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:31:31

Well, no, thank you for the question.

And I mean, there is always a risk,

even if we were not prudent.

I think as we have seen with the previous government,

and this government has made, from its start,

a shame that bluntly it looks like it's probably going to be

continuation of the same but on speed dial.

I mean, a 12 hour U -turn is even kissable.

Kiss to Starmer at least gave us the advantage of a year

rather than 12 hours.

But as we saw previously that when they took 44 million

pounds from us, we were in our situation was not great

overall like lots of other councils.

And they still decided they were going to take the money.

So prudency, I do not, well, maybe one factor,

but unfortunately, I hate to say it,

I think purely political reasons is probably higher

up on the agenda.

But yes, the risk is always there,

but I'm afraid we have a government which seems

to be making rather political moves.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:32:31

Thank you.

Any further questions on Treasury management?

No?

Okay.

Thank you very much.

We'll now move on to Agenda Item 6,

6 Chief Auditor’s Annual Audit Opinion 2025/26

which is the Chief Auditor's annual audit opinion for 25 and 26.

I'll hand over to you, Selina.

Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager - 0:32:46

Thank you, Chairman.

This report presented to you today outlines the internal audit work that was undertaken in the year 2025 and 26,

and provides an opinion on the adequacy and effectiveness of the control environment.

The Local Government Act and the Count and Audit Regulations set out the requirements for all local authorities

to maintain an adequate and effective internal audit service in accordance with proper internal

practises. And we have the global internal audit standards that set out the proper practises that

the chief internal auditor is required to comply with. And this annual report presented to you

forms part of those requirements. It is expected that the opinion should be giving a view on the

overall adequacy and effectiveness of the internal control environment comprising risk management

of control and governance.

The standards themselves also detail the requirement

for the internal audit function to be independent.

The internal auditors must be objective in the work

that they perform and the chief internal auditor is required

to confirm this at least annually.

I'd like to confirm that the service has continued to operate

in accordance with those standards.

However, on page 34 of your PAC, we have highlighted one area

of nonconformance as the chief auditor has management

responsibility of risk management and the insurance function.

I'd like to highlight to the committee that this is not unusual for local authorities.

We have the SIPFAA application note that recognises this and gives detail and guidance on how

this should be mitigated.

And again, paragraph 2 .3 details the mitigations that we have in place for this non -conformance.

On page 47, we've also included additional information regarding how the internal audit

that function conforms against the standards.

Page 37, we provided the Chief Internal Order opinion

for 2526, which is reasonable assurance.

This opinion is based on the assurance work undertaken,

which is summarised for you from page 38 of the PAC.

I'd like to highlight that there were no,

that the system of internal control

can never be absolute, we cannot give an absolute opinion.

However, there are no instances of misstatements

or losses that we have identified ourselves and the no material issues that we have identified

within the work undertaken. The provision of this opinion has been achieved through the delivery of

the risk -based internal audit plan which was approved by this committee at the July 2025

meeting and the matters raised in this report are only those that came to our attention during the

internal audit work and they're not necessarily a comprehensive statement of all the weaknesses

that may exist or any improvements that may be required across the council.

The team have completed 70 engagements throughout the year and these are comprising of audits,

follow -up reviews, compliance testing, advisory reviews and grant assurance work.

At page 39 of your pack at the top of that page we've presented the assurance opinions

of the orders undertaken each year and done a comparison against the last four years.

You'd note that for 25 -26 we did not issue any reports with a no assurance opinion demonstrating a positive direction of travel.

I just want to highlight an error in the chart for the limited assurance report.

So we noted in there that we've issued four limited assurance reports, it's actually been three.

So again, further demonstration of the continued positive directional travel compared to the

previous years.

The limited assurance reports issued this year relate to rights of ways, the contract

for accounts payable, audit within children's and Overstone combined school.

In Appendix A, which is on page 49, we have a summary for the assurance opinions for the

audit work undertaken this year.

At the bottom of that page, on page 39, we have set out six assurance areas that we've used to support the Chief Auditor's opinion.

A detailed summary of each area provided in the preceding pages, but I just want to draw your attention to a couple of key areas.

So the contract management, you'll notice we have continued to maintain the limited opinion, and this is because we did not undertake an audit during 25 -26.

However, one is planned for this year.

Following the 24 -25 order, the committee have been receiving regular updates on progress

against the improvements within contract management and the committee have received a certain

number of occasions and have been provided with further assurances through risk management

group by the corporate director of adults and health and the service director of strategic

commissioning and procurement.

With regard to risk management, we've seen this area strengthened.

A key change to note is the strategic risk register is now being presented to Cabinet

and to the Committee, and this is in response to recommendations made by external audit

and through the peer challenge.

On page 41 -42, a high provider summary of the key financial systems.

There are no material weaknesses that were identified.

However, you'll note that the payroll audit was of a recent opinion this year compared

to last year, where it's substantial.

So there's an error with that error which should be showing a downward trajectory, but

nonetheless from the review undertaken there are no key concerns that were identified.

Lastly, I'll draw your attention to the counter -fraud area. Again, this is summarised on

page 44 and a detailed report has been presented in Appendix D which is on page 60.

On page 61 we provided a progress update against the counter -fraud plan. Again, this was approved

which was spotted by the committee at the July 25 meeting.

This work is undertaken by the team

alongside the reactive referrals that come in,

and the team have been able to deliver

all areas within the plan.

Though I'll highlight that we had an ambitious plan

to report to committee on our progress on a quarterly basis,

and we only managed to do this at mid -year.

For FY 25 -26, we've had 307 referrals

received within the team,

and this is 91 more referrals compared to the previous year.

We have done a light benchmark of the referral numbers

which is presented to you on page 64 of the PAC.

The increase in referrals is generally attributed

to our increase in fraud awareness

and improvement in our referral channels.

So key areas to note is we've done greater engagement

with the housing team and adult social care

and we saw additional referrals

from the internal housing team of 45 cases that we investigated and through our work

with Aldo Social Care we're able to recover 13k this year. From across all the investigations

that are completed this year we've achieved just over 100k in savings and a key element of the

work that we do is through the National Fraud Initiative which is a data matching exercise

and through this review we recovered 63 ,000.

And I think I'll pause there for questions.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:39:51

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Before I let in Councillor Rous,

one point from me on page 61,

as we talked about yesterday in the pre -brief

about introducing quarterly fraud updates,

and obviously we are doing that

for our statutory officer team, is my understanding now.

But I think for the benefit of this committee,

We should be aiming to provide regular counter -fraud updates more than at the half yearly point. Maybe that's something we can take away going forward

Excellent. Okay. Thank you

Councillor

Cllr Simon Rouse - 0:40:21

Thank You chairman. Um, so firstly congratulations to the

teams has ever huge amount of work undertaken

the obvious question when you look at the report is that the

opinion for the last two years has placed limited

assurance on contract management, but this year we didn't do an audit and it's

the only area that's had limited assurance so it looks incredibly odd

that we didn't look at that but in the report unless I've missed it we get no

explanation as to why there was no audit undertaken so could you just

take us through why that was the case because it is a pretty stark area of

The other, later in the report, refers to the changes in the team, refers to stability

now in the team and roles having been filled.

I guess this is more a question for the Chief Auditor.

Are you confident that as we go into this year you have sufficient resources in the

team to do what is required and if not, where are the remaining gaps that this committee

can support you with?

And then final question, towards the end of the report is the feedback from the directorates

that you've engaged with, Google style review type ratings.

It leads me back to a few years ago, there used to be a measure in the team about audit

findings being accepted by management from memory, which I recall the committee challenging

as a measure of success, because frankly,

whether management accepts your findings or not

shouldn't be a measure of the audit team's success.

So again, unless I've missed it,

I'm not altogether clear now on how the audit team

and assurance team are measured in terms of

what are the key KPIs that you're held to account for.

So could you just perhaps just give us a high level review

of what those are, and apologies if I've missed it

in the report, I couldn't see that.

And then at least my final wrap around question,

which is are you confident and comfortable that you get sufficient traction with the corporate management team

on issues that you raise as a result of the assurance activity or any concerns you want to flag with the committee?

Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager - 0:42:39

Thank you, Councillor Rouse. I'll start with the contract management point.

So within paragraph 7 .71, I've tried to expand and give a bit of detail in terms of the rationale

while we haven't undertaken an audit this year.

So page 43 of the pack.

So I think just by way of background,

the last audit for 24 -25 was done

at the tail end of the year.

And I recall the committee had quite a bit of challenge

for the service as part of that.

And I'm not sure if you recall,

they mentioned about developing a procurement hub,

which is what they've been implementing during the year.

And the reason why we paused doing an audit is because during the year they've been implementing

a new system, the in -trend system, and they've also been developing a new toolkit that sits

behind that.

So they've now implemented a contract management toolkit and a handbook that have just been

rolled out and people are being introduced to that new way of working.

Further to that, again I'm not sure if all the members were here at the time, there was

a complete turnover in terms of staff, there was a change of service director and a lot

of the senior leadership within that function also shifted,

and there's been a complete restructure within the team,

and factors alongside all those changes

with the Procurement Act implementation.

So we took the view that because there's quite a lot

of actions that they needed to progress,

that more framework -based, we did a follow -up

of the findings that were raised.

So we sample tested in 24, 25 specific weaknesses

to contracts, so we made sure those weaknesses

for those contracts were followed up and were addressed.

But the remaining element as to why we can't give an opinion this year is we haven't done

a holistic end -to -end review of the framework that they're working to now against intent

and the contract management handbook they've introduced.

There wasn't enough time for us to be able to do that as they implemented and introduced

that this year.

What we have done is we've undertaken a procurement act assurance review and this will sit alongside

contract management because there are new requirements around contract management that

as part of that act and that was the view that we took

because the service had recognised the weaknesses

and accepted those and through the assurance

that the committee were receiving and CMT,

we thought that was the most appropriate to defer

that once they fully implemented the process

to review for 26, 27 as opposed to while

they're still developing in 25, 26.

Makes sense.

Cllr Simon Rouse - 0:45:09

Can I just come up before we do the rest of that case?

Thank you. I must confess I didn't read those paragraphs as the reason why we didn't do the audit, but now that that

Is the case I'm just going to make the point that I think we've made before

Which is I think we have said that changes in structure or non delivery of things wouldn't constitute in the committee's view

Exceptual circumstances for delaying audits, and I think had a quite extensive discussion about that

I also I'm not sure I recall that coming to the committee

but it may have been when I wasn't on the committee.

Because it does feel to me like that

is an area where we've got limited assurance

and have had historic limited assurance.

And I sort of struggle with why we didn't do an order even

notwithstanding what you've just said.

And I suppose, just to give me a degree of comfort,

where you make observations then in say, let's take 7 .7 .3,

we seem to make some parting observations

about the quality of the implementation.

Are those observations from the audits team review of that implementation rather than

what management are telling you about the implementation?

Yes, so I can confirm that.

Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager - 0:46:20

So when we did the Procurement Act Assurance Review, we would have looked at the intent

system, we would have looked at the governance arrangements around the team.

It's just the contract management element that we've not looked at, but the actual structure

and the process that we established form part of Procurement Act.

So I think it's a timing thing that we thought because the Act came into force, we'd never

touch procurement act it made sense for us to look at that just so we make sure any new

contracts we enter into starting on the right terms in terms of the framework and then the

monitoring bit in terms of the contract management what we'll audit it after.

So the plan is to do a full audit.

We've not touched anything within that service.

It's just not the same end to end review that we would have done in the previous year.

And to note again in the previous year we didn't look at procurement as an audit.

we would have picked that up as part of the contract management audit.

I'll take the other question regarding feedback.

I think that's an oversight in terms of how we reported this because we do track our performance.

So the standard guidance in terms of, again, our ability to turn around reports and yes,

if there are any audit findings that we raise that are not accepted by management.

We haven't had any this year, so we would be reporting 100 % on that.

We have previously reported on the performance figures, we just haven't picked it up on this

report and I think it's an oversight we can bring for the next committee.

Russell Heppleston - Head of Business Assurance and Chief Auditor - 0:47:55

Thanks for the question.

I'll add just a couple of insights from my perspective on the performance reporting as

part of the business assurance service review.

I will be intending on reporting progress on our business assurance service on a more

regular basis and that will include service performance, how we measure success and that

broader piece around what does a balanced scorecard look like for an internal audit

function versus a business assurance function.

But as Selina said, there are kind of markers for that,

so we'll make sure that's included in the future.

The second point on contract management is just to note

that on the 26 -27 plan, which is the next item,

there is a piece of work underway.

So we're not at the point of reporting yet

through to management, but there is a piece of work on that

that's being undertaken and the results will be presented

to committee at the next update.

And the third one around resources,

I will cover this in the audit plan section.

Am I confident that we will have resources

to deliver the plan this time next year?

In the coming year, sorry.

Yes, I am.

The service review, the principles behind the service

review are about creating greater resilience

and specialist capability within the team

rather than relying on an external co -source.

That has meant that we are going now

through a significant period of recruitment

across the whole service.

For internal audit that includes a internal audit role

and a senior internal audit role,

which we'll be out to advert for

hopefully in the next few weeks.

That has coincided with the fact

that our co -source arrangement expired

and the re -tendering of those frameworks

has taken quite a while.

Both of which are now fully available

and we've been through the process to sign up to them.

So hopefully within the next couple of weeks

we'll have access to the co -source.

What this does mean is we will have resources

and capability to deliver what's on the plan

because we'll have additional capability

plus the co -source arrangement.

But the sequencing of how we deliver it

will be very different to previous.

So you'll see on the plan paper,

most of our resource has been on making sure

that we've wrapped up the 25, 26 work

in order to support Selena's annual opinion.

And it's been a slower start on quarter one, quarter two,

because we have literally just had two members of staff

to deliver the work.

So it's valiant and as hardworking as they are

to make progress. We are limited in capacity and Alex as our audit and delivery manager

is also doing some work on that as well. I've briefed CMT, there's been a paper to CMT around

the audit plan and support and the commitment that we will deliver the plan but it will

probably be back heavy so most of that work and activity will be quarter to three, quarter

for and it does mean I think the impact is we won't be in a position to pull the audit

plan forward which is what I would hope to do that over the next couple of years the

audit plan will come to committee closer to March rather than summer so that it aligns

with the financial year end which is certainly the ambition.

And then just the final point on that, have I got any concerns?

been here three months so starting to get a lay of the land in terms of the culture,

management's response to audit actions, accountability around management actions and what I've seen

so far is an entirely kind of open door policy for audit so we don't generally get pushed

away. Obviously we have very reasonable discussions around if we're going to defer or we need

to consider things, but that's something that we discussed here. And secondly, the reporting

processes, the governance, all high priority findings and audit reports go through direct

to senior leadership teams, we report quarterly to corporate management team on progress against

delivery of the audit plan and as far as I'm aware we've not received any real

pressure or undue influence to not report openly in our name to twist or

change any of our judgments so certainly in the first three months I'm relatively

comfortable and confident that there's a positive assurance and audit culture

But I will of course report freely and openly to you,

should I ever feel that that's threatened.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:53:00

Thank you.

Councillor Wilson.

Thank you, Chairman.

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 0:53:05

And I would echo Councillor Rousey's comments.

So thank you to Ms. Harlock for holding the ship together

through the last however many months it was.

Probably felt like a long time from your point of view

and welcome to Mr. Appleston.

I also share the concern over the contract management and I note that I

think we're recruiting a new head of procurement and commissioning hub. Again

I'm not sure how many we've been through almost as many as Prime Minister's we

seem to have had recently but again I share the concern that you know a

constant change of what was supposed to be a solution

for many of our issues seems to be a bit of a concern,

so I echo those thoughts.

I did want to, and I suppose it kind of picks up

a little bit of that theme

from our three -way security.

On paragraph 4 .3, it just picks up Mr. Hepperson,

about where the internal audit reports go.

And Chairman, you may want to refresh my memory.

I thought we discussed internal audit reports

going to select committee chairs.

And obviously we have one of those here.

I personally feel that our scrutiny chairs

should see the relevant internal audit reports for there.

portfolio directorate areas of cover, and whether those are substantial, reasonable,

limited or no assurance, because I think seeing what's good and what is challenging I think

is equally important.

And I think in the interest of scrutiny I think it's important that the select committee

chairs should receive those.

And you know, I think it is, I can't remember whether we left it that that was something

we were going to do or whether or not on a case by case basis you were going to write

to the select committee chair.

And that's where I think you may need to refresh my memory.

My personal view is I think the select committee chair should receive the internal audit reports

regardless of the outcome.

But anyway, that's maybe something we can discuss.

And on the, I'm glad you noted the issue about the arrows.

I think there's possibly another one on there

where we've got a green to green on treasury management

that has an up arrow.

I'm talking about page 42.

I was a little confused what the protocols were,

but clearly there's one error.

I think there's two errors on that

if we can perhaps correct that.

But I think my other questions are probably picked up

on reports later on in the agenda.

But I would certainly like to see a sharing

in internal audit reports,

and I would certainly like to see the procurement

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:56:29

and commissioning service and contracts come back

sooner rather than later.

So before I hand over to Selina, I think so far we've shared two internal audit reports

so far with the relevant select committee chairmen at the request of this committee

so far.

We have not yet got to the point of discussing how they are shared wider as well.

And I too would ask the question on page 36 of the PAC regarding internal audit reports.

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:57:07

Maybe Councillor Carrington is our sole cabinet member here today can qualify whether or not the relevant cabinet members do receive the reports or just the outcomes. That may be helpful.

The relevant cabinet members receive both the reports and the outcomes and I'm sure you are very involved and it also does go to cabinet as well along with the strategic risk register which I know we're discussing later.

Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager - 0:57:27

I think the I'll note the error on the financial systems. I think that is a good spot, but

Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager - 0:57:36

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:57:38

I know the national parks. I'll correct that before the publisher. Thank you.

OK, thank you. Councillor more than Councillor Crap.

Cllr David Moore - 0:57:45

Thank you, Chairman. It's an honour to join this committee and apologies for missing the

training. I will certainly catch up on that and do the necessary actions needed. My question

is on rights of way, if I may, without going into specifics and I appreciate, it's not

that specific, but highways leads to discuss specific cases. But I'd just like to ask regarding

the limited assurance tag on the audit, especially the three high priority problems. What is

being addressed to resolve that? What are the KPIs there to reduce the risk? Because

I appreciate with rights of way,

there's a lot of legal risk,

whereas for example, you know,

there's cases where there could be obstructions

to the thoroughfare.

I know obviously bridges come under rights of way

and there's a number of footpath bridges,

things like this, structural issues perhaps,

appreciates quite a high risk aspect

of the council's services.

So what is being done to address that

and to reduce those high priority problems?

Thank you.

Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager - 0:58:45

Thank you Councillor. So I can't give a holistic view of rights of way. I think with regard to the audit itself and the findings, we're in a position where I think our last position there might have been two actions that were still open within the area.

And the committee did raise concerns with that with regard to that area and the paper was actually brought here for detailed scrutiny and further assurances to the committee.

I can assure you that we have done a complete follow -up of the actions that we found as part of that review.

KPIs did form part of the area of improvement and I think the team have taken that on board and they've taken the netter improvements.

I just can't give you the broader assurance about right -of -way as a whole, but the actual reports and the actions themselves have been progressed and been looked at.

Highways is a big area and is an area that we always look at every year, so I think you'll note in the next paper that Russell presents as well,

We have picked up another aspect of highway

So we'll always take on a rotational basis some key risk areas within highways that we look at will look at purely because of the size

And the risk associated with them

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:59:51

Cllr Anna Crabtree - 0:59:54

Thank you

So I'm looking at the table on page 39 where we've got the overall number of opinions given

And I note your comment about how there are actually only three

limited opinions given rather than the four

that's on the table.

But there are a number of limited opinions

and when we drill down into the reasonable opinions,

there are also a number of limited areas within those areas

that have been concluded to be reasonable on balance

once you take it holistically.

But it just makes me realise how highly subjective

and judgmental the whole process is really.

So I just wondered what confidence can be offered

that the overall opinion for the council

or should be reasonable for the year.

And is it not more like a snapshot?

If you're doing an external financial audit,

you'd say this is a point in time

and this is how the situation was.

And yes, there are changes to be made after that.

But it feels to me like there's a lot of weight being

given to subsequent fixes that are only offered after an issue

has been identified.

So I just feel like that's raising some concerns

that the controls don't exist until the internal audit turn

up and point out some of the things they'd like to see.

and I'd like a bit more confidence on that please.

Thank you.

Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager - 1:01:04

Thank you, Council, for that question.

So I think your initial observations in terms of

the audit is at a point in time,

and we can't give you any further assurances

beyond that point that we reviewed that audit.

And I think it leans into the point that I made earlier

that our opinion is not absolute.

So if something has not come to our attention

and we've not looked at a particular area,

I can't give you the assurances

that there's no issue within that space.

And absolutely the audit opinion is subjective.

It's an aggregate view based on what we have looked at,

which is why we say anything that we've not looked at,

we can't give the assurances again that you require.

So it's very much limited to what we've been involved in, what we're aware of.

That's not to say we have blinkers.

If we also hear that things are not quite right, we will recognise and make comments

with regard to what we're hearing and observing.

But if we haven't done any assurance piece of work, I can't give a judgement

for that particular area because I've not done the detailed assessment of the control

framework.

With regards to your point around concerns about the controls, whether they exist or

not, if there was no control in place, you would see the no assurance.

That's sort of the basis where we go, we're really concerned, you've got no idea of what

you're doing, everything is lax.

That's sort of why we have the no assurance and sort of that approach in terms of the

rating.

With the reasonable ones, again a fair judgement, it's going to be an aggregate one.

You might have two findings that are red and you have three that are amber and some green

ones in there.

It's to do with the materiality and the wider impact on the control environment.

So we can have an area that I deem it to be red because you haven't done your reconciliations

on a regular basis.

But that's not to say that the payment is being made inaccurate.

It's just that that control that gives me the assurance that the payments are being

made in time and to the right people and those totals are correct is what's missing.

So we can't give an opinion saying the control is poor because we've given two reds, it has

to be a reasonable, it is a judgement based on the sort of a net review of whatever system

of control that we've looked at.

The other thing that sits behind that is around the risk based methodology.

So we don't test everything within a process purely because of the resource limitations

but also with the impact on the team,

so we focus on the key areas of the process.

So again, it's gonna be a judgement based on

that area that we've looked at.

So that's our approach.

And it's all based on guidance that we have,

again, from the standards it gives you,

that sort of remit and the ability for us to justify

that opinion that we've given you.

And it's then difficult to give you the,

I think there's a paper that Fiona's presenting later

will give you substantial opinion.

I can't then give you substantial opinion

because I haven't looked at everything.

So it's basically limited to just those areas that we have looked at that we can give the required comfort

Based on a risk -based methodology a risk -based audit plan that you as the committee have approved for us to look at

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 1:03:56

Thank you

Okay, thank you very much for that Selena thank you for all your work is our interim and I hope the new role is going

very well

7 Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Plan 2026/27

Okay, we now move on to agenda item 7 which is the internal audit counter fraud plan 2627

over Chief Russell.

Russell Heppleston - Head of Business Assurance and Chief Auditor - 1:04:16

Thank you Chairman and thank you members and also just to recall my thanks to Selina for

a really disturbing effort with the team and with the service while it's undergone service

review and while the council has been recruiting new leadership.

I'll just briefly talk through highlights a bit like Selena did on this paper.

So this is the internal audit and counter fraud plan for 26 -27.

Ambition I think was that we would be bringing this earlier in the year but with circumstances

they were we couldn't bring it in May.

It made sense to bring it alongside the opinion and also the substantial report that Fiona's

is going to be reported.

However, the ambition for me as your chief order

is to bring this forward.

I think it's really important that it aligns well

with other key decisions of the council's

kind of financial year.

And so over the next couple of years,

the ambition will be to kind of claw that back

to a delivery, hopefully in March.

But you are seeing this in July

in the same time you did last year,

so it's no worse position.

It's just not close to the year end that we would have hoped for originally.

So just a quick answer through the report itself.

As Selina mentioned, I won't talk about any of the kind of regulatory framework, but the

standards do set out how we undertake our audit planning processes.

So you'll see a table on page 79, which is all the requirements that we should be fulfilling

and evidencing when it comes to undertaking our audit planning.

It is a continuous process, so you'll see on page 80,

it's not just a case of we will look at the same things

over and over again on a cyclical basis.

We try to find as much insight and knowledge

of both the internal operating environment

and the external operating environment,

considering things like the council's adequacy

of its risk management frameworks,

what key risks the council is facing,

and then also key controls around key financial systems and interactions.

And as Selina said, taking into account things like materiality and use of resources.

It is continuous, which means the plan is as an element responsive and flexible.

So we do plan quite a significant amount of audit resources to deliver the topics on the audit plan,

but generally what you'll see at the end of the year

won't be what you've seen at the beginning of the year,

and that's a reflection of actually the volatility

in the operating environment for councils

and all of local government, that something could happen

that means your audit function needs to step in,

because it is generally of higher risk.

We do have mechanisms in place to keep the audit committee

informed of those and part of the decision -making process,

but I also interact on a regular basis with the chairman.

So there is kind of a full briefing of audit committee

throughout the year.

Moving through onto page 82,

I won't say too much about resources now,

but I have included it in here

because I think it's really important

to understand the resource position now

versus where we plan it to be later in the year.

Having the co -source arrangement

gives us a degree of comfort and availability that we wouldn't have had,

well that we would normally have, but we will have again very shortly, which means

if we do struggle to fill any of those posts during recruitment we can call off

on that contract for specialist support. It also means through the co -source we

do have access to specialists that we just can't have in -house because you

we don't have the resource or the capability for it.

IT audit is an example.

We're gonna be spending the next few years

training our own IT auditor,

but that doesn't mean we have IT audit skills

available right now, and clearly in a world

that's covered with automation, AI risk,

and digitization transformation,

IT audit is significantly important

for how we provide assurance to counselling the committee

on those arrangements.

Moving through into the audit plan itself, elements of this is around financial control,

which I've said, so you'll see a bigger proportion of our audit time looking at key financial

systems, but also the broader key financial environment.

So how do different systems feed into the capsule's key financial systems?

And then we have a broad spread across the direct rates.

On the whole, most of the numbers of audit projects

are the same, but actually for me, what's most important

is we're looking at the right things.

More audits doesn't mean that we're more successful.

The right audits means that we're providing

the right information.

That might mean we look at three high -risk areas

in more time rather than five lower -risk areas

in a short amount of time.

So, on to Councillor Brouss's point,

delivering 54 audits isn't necessarily a measure of success, but delivering the right audits

at the right time is, and so how we measure impact on that.

Looking back at last year's meeting, to your point, Councillor Wilson, we've included now

the historic audit coverage, so you'll be able to see a list of all the audits that

we have done in the last five years, both from an advisory consultancy perspective,

but also those where we've issued a level of assurance, some of which you can see repeat,

and most of those for obvious reasons, because it's a key financial system, so we're a key

mechanism for Dave to get assurance that the council's administering its finances well.

But this is not a list of every audit we could do, and so I think it's really important to

to understand that this in itself is not the audit universe,

which is what we term all the things we could do.

So we'll be going through some work over the next

year or so in our new business assurance strategy

and internal audit strategy aligned with the work

that's coming up on assurance mapping

to better understand actually what are all the audits

that we could do in the council,

where are we currently gaining assurance,

whether that's through management control,

or external assurance and actually where the gaps are,

which could influence, well it certainly will influence

audit planning going forward.

In terms of the audit plans itself,

they're split up by directorate,

so you'll see an indicative proposed schedule

in terms of time and an indicative audit days

based on the kind of rationale for the audit.

As I've said, we've made slower progress

on quarter one, quarter two, but that's to be expected

as we just haven't had the resource,

and we've been prioritising on the 25, 26 work,

but all effort is being made for us to ramp up

based on the capacity that we will have

for quarter three, quarter four,

so I'm hopeful that we'll be in a position

to report delivery of this audit plan,

certainly by this time next year.

And then moving on to the,

One other point I will raise on this is changing the corporate plan means we will be doing

a realignment exercise with the audit plan as well.

New corporate plan priorities and ambitions to make sure that if there are any significant

gaps, programmes or initiatives that we think we should be looking at, that we capture them

in year and again report through any changes to the audit committee in the normal reporting

process.

And then the final point is on the counter fraud plan

which I've added into this plan this year round.

It is a maturity plan, so a lot of the work is ongoing.

As Selena mentioned, we have resource available

for reactive work and that's often how investigations

come through, whether it's through a whistle blowing

or through a piece of internal audit work

that sees a control failure or any other kind of work

such as the National Fraud Initiative.

Other work is around prevention,

and that is the continuous work that we do

to try and improve awareness and vigilance

across the organisation,

share lessons learned from other investigations

or issues that have been identified,

and progress in cases to as much power as we possibly can.

So pursuing and enforcing where we feel the need

is appropriate.

I think I've covered most of my key points,

but happy to take any questions

and any details on the projects,

both myself, Selina, and Alex are here.

If I can't answer any of them,

I'm still slightly green.

Thank you.

Thank you very much Russell.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 1:13:35

Questions, members?

Councillor Wilson.

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 1:13:43

Thank you.

Firstly, thank you for putting in my slider that shows where we've been historically,

because I think it's quite useful to see that.

I suspect that will evolve over a period of time, and we might break out some of the slides.

So in children education, maybe pull the schools on one and the children's services on another

and so on and so forth.

I probably have questions on a number of these,

but I'll start with the Assistant Chief

Executive Directorate.

So the one orange on there of limited was the lottery

and kind of picking up concepts of counter fraud or fraud.

We haven't come back to that one at all.

So first question is confidence levels around that.

It may be, you know, we might consider materiality

to be an issue there or not.

We'd like it to be bigger.

Obviously, there's always some risks around that.

On the adult, obviously, questions there, again,

about procurement and, you know, we're going to come back

to that consistently, I think, in terms of procurement

and commissioning and whether

or not we have adequate coverage on that.

And I guess the, based on where we've been, the, we'll come back to this as the Contro OCCAP.

I think we'll come back to that in part two in terms of questions and issues around that one.

I suppose one, just looking at the cabinet papers for next week,

is, and maybe this is wrapped up in terms of strategic sufficiency planning for SEND and alternative provision,

but also in terms of children's services, I don't know whether that becomes of a greater interest given revenue position on that.

and whether or not that's something we want to consider.

So I think that I could probably have questions on all of them to be honest Chairman,

but I'll leave it at that for now. Thank you.

Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager - 1:16:04

So I will start with the, is it the contract point?

So I know we're going to come back to that one in the part two,

but the way that we planned the activity was intentional.

So it's the same system and children's use it different to how adults do.

And I think there's an opportunity to do some lessons learned between the two services with

adults being ahead of the game.

Another factor that came into it is during the year adults were implementing another

phase two to their system and it made sense for them to just embed that so when that's

done we can audit the whole lot with the new implemented controls and improvements they've

made.

But it is an opportunity to just improve how children are doing it and utilising the system

compared to adults.

It's just an easy lessons learned approach that we picked up and we thought we could

capitalise on.

In the, is it ACE you referenced, lottery, it's a materiality thing I think based on

the risk based methodology, just thinking where we've got our resource, which is the

best way to use our resource.

Should there be any concerns that come through which may lead to more risk or fraud?

I think the fraud team might be best placed if there's a discovery in that area.

but I think on the balance of what we have in the plan and the wider direct

threat in the organisation it was just bottom of the list.

I think we did look at lottery perhaps earlier on the start of the unitary and

again there weren't any material findings then

so when we look at it from that perspective that's sort of the view

that we've taken. Was there another one on this?

I asked a question about children's services and sense efficiency.

So we have an assurance review that's in the plan and it's quite broad in terms of

what we look at it and that's intentional.

I think we've recognised the risk and the high profile nature of SEND and the timing

of that is quite important in terms of how we factor in any key deliverables that they

have to do in the year.

So the points that we've raised in terms of any financial impact will be considered as

we scope the piece of work and where we state the number of days again it determines which

key areas we identify as a risk area to look at.

But I can't give you a view whether the finance can be heavier weight than the other.

I think it's based on assessment of the whole end to end review as we scope it and then

we'll determine how we're going to evaluate the processes.

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 1:18:30

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 1:18:36

I can probably come back to that on the corporate strategic risk discussion we have later on.

Any further questions from members?

Okay, well thank you very much for that.

We then move on to agenda item.

Can I have committee's agreement to formally approve the internal audit and counter floor

plan?

Thank you.

Thank you, Leslie.

Moving on to agenda item 9, which is appointments to the risk management group.

So as per the terms of reference.

Item 8 as well.

Item 8.

And item 8.

8 The achievement of a ' Substantial' Chief Internal Auditor's annual opinion.

I'm not having a good day, am I?

Apologies, we'll go to item 8 first, which is the achievement of a substantial chief

internal auditors annual opinion on page 111 of your tax.

Fiona, over to you.

Cllr Robert Carington - 1:19:28

Well, actually I have the pleasure of doing this, well I think Fiona's pleasure of presenting

this item, which again for newer members of the committee, the background is in September

last year the committee received the annual orders opinion for 2425 and while it was concluded

the council had a reasonable level of assurance, which is the second highest rating.

The question was put on that paper be produced,

setting out the actions that could be taken

to support the council reaching a substantial

annual orders opinion and this is I think

the second iteration the committee are now seeing.

And so yes, I really, here you go.

Attempt two.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 1:20:17

Thank you, Councillor Carroll. Is there anything you wish to add, Fiona?

Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer - 1:20:21

Just a few points to make. So what we try to do within this report, which has been produced

in collaboration with colleagues in the Business Assurance Service, so Russell and Jo have

both been very much involved in this, is really to provide a summary of how the Council has

performed in terms of the assessment it's received on its control environment from the

Achieving Internal Auditor. So a proportion of the report is around the history and the

trends that we've seen, the action that's been taken by the organisation to enhance

the control environment and then I think the sort of most critical point of the report

is this proposal around a business assurance mapping exercise which is set out at a high

level in appendix 2 and that sort of sets out the proposed next steps in this area.

So Chairman, those are the points I just wanted to make to try and focus Committee on their

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 1:21:08

questions.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Questions from members?

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 1:21:16

Councillor Wilson.

I suppose it was quite, thank you for providing more detail.

I think paragraph 2 .9 there is no single national register of opinion,

but you don't think anybody has got a substantial or

equivalent because obviously there's different uses.

and I always think it's quite interesting when you have a set of metrics that actually

the top level is seemingly unachievable or at least nobody's managed to get there.

I was minded, Chairman, that LGA talked to me about.

There is a forum for audit chairs and I don't know if that's something you participate in,

But I think it might be quite an interesting conversation for

your peers to participate in that.

But I just think it's quite interesting when

there is a rating system that is unachievable.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 1:22:21

But maybe you want to comment on that.

That is an excellent question, Councillor Wilson, and

one that I did ask yesterday in my chairman's pre -brief.

and I made the fewings cut.

Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer - 1:22:30

Excellent answer for you.

Thank you, Chairman.

So, Councillor Wilson, on this concept of can a substantial

rating ever be achieved, so the exercise that was undertaken,

which is outlined in Appendix 1, is looking at similar

authorities to ourselves.

So other Shire County unitaries.

Obviously at the moment, there are a number of different local

authorities across the organisation, and I can't say

that I've done an extent across the nation, sorry.

I can't say that I've done an extensive review of every

still one of them and how they've fared in the annual internal audit opinion.

But I did come across I think one small district council that had managed to

achieve a substantial level of assurance. So it is possible, it is possible, but if

you look at those authorities that are comparable to us, we're very much within

the sort of higher performing end of the pack if you do that comparison. So

just to make that point clear, which I know the Chairman would otherwise have

raised.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 1:23:25

Thank you.

Council Powell.

Cllr Chris Poll - 1:23:32

Thank you, Chairman.

I don't want to rain on anybody's parade.

Bearing in mind, this is the beginning of the second year of my time on this committee,

so it's still fairly new to me, this process.

Historically, what I've heard from other members was questions on the external audit report

for the last few years. Now, I understand that there have been problems with external

auditors across the piece in, I think, a resourcing issue post -pandemic. And we have the Build

back programme of understanding in a less qualified way what has happened in those last few years.

But for the man I hesitate to say on the clapham, shall we say the Haddonham omnibus, would

hear that this whilst good is the council marking its own homework, and it literally

is.

So really we need to know, excuse me, what's going to happen in the future

with the unqualified opinions from previous years and if that's going to change now.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 1:25:06

Sarah would you like to?

Sarah Brown - KPMG - 1:25:15

Yes, so just to clarify that I've understood the question correctly.

You are correct that there has been a number of years and that the council hasn't received

an audit opinion.

We can't obviously go back in time and correct that position, so there won't be any updates

to the audit opinions that were issued as effectively disclaimed opinions in the intervening

years.

but what we do have is a pathway to removing the disclaimer

and getting back to an unmodified opinion.

The key, I guess there's two key elements to it.

The first is being able to get comfortable

with what I describe as the top half of the balance sheet.

So the valuation investment properties,

valuation of PPE, pensions, cash, loans, et cetera.

Now that we're entering into the second year of the audit,

we've been able to get comfortable with both the opening

and the closing balance sheet positions

for all of those elements of the balance sheet.

The area that requires a little bit more work

is property, plant and equipment valuation.

And that's because the council,

along with other local authorities,

only gets those assets valued once every five years.

So we need to make sure that we've done sufficient work to effectively cover the period in which there won't have been a full valuation that's been subject to audit.

So we've already planned the time and the resource to be able to do that catch -up work later this calendar year.

So from that perspective we're quite comfortable that we'll be able to get to a point that

we'll be comfortable with the top half of the balance sheet.

The reserves position is then the element that's slightly more complex because we need

to make sure that we can be comfortable with what has been allocated to usable and unusable

reserves in the periods that haven't received an audit.

We've already undertaken quite an extensive risk assessment and detailed work in that

area, which we will again be scheduling later this year to complete.

So whilst it will take a little bit of time, we are comfortable that for the council we

should be able to get there.

So for the financial state, for the financial year that we're auditing, that has the January

2027 backstop date, we anticipate that there will still be some level of modification to our opinion.

But in the year thereafter, we hope to get back to an unmodified position. I hope that helps.

It does. Thank you very much. It's very reassuring.

David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer - 1:28:07

I think just to add to that then, working with KPMG now in terms of build back assurance

but also previously with GT then a lot of the work that went into the production of

the disclaimed accounts has proven to be worthwhile in terms of kind of going through in order

to be able to satisfy the audit requirements now in terms of being able to build back assurance

more quickly than a number of other authorities that aren't in that place and really positive

to hear in terms of the direction of travel in terms of for the 25, 26 accounts and hopefully

in terms of 26, 27 accounts and kind of moving towards an unmodified opinion.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 1:28:53

Very, very good. Thank you, Jim. Thank you. Any further questions on this gender item?

Okay, we now move on finally to agenda item 9

9 Appointments to Risk Management Group

As long as you don't tell me I've got this one wrong again

Which is the appointments to the risk management group which has the terms of reference of the risk management group

Therefore as chairman I've appointed myself

Councillor Dillon Councillor Collingwood Councillor poll Councillor meta

Councillor Wilson to the risk management group for this council year

That now moves us on to Agenda Item 10,

10 Work Programme

which is the work programme.

And page 127 of your packs,

which has been circulated to members.

Are there any questions on the work programme from members?

Okay, I see none, which is interesting.

Obviously the annual Ripper needs to be brought to the next committee meeting because we're

not in a position to bring it on today's agenda.

Also following conversation with Leslie I was reviewing the terms of reference in the

Council's constitution and there is a reference to, sorry Leslie you're going to have to,

my laptop is not on.

Leslie Ashton - Principal Committees and Governance Services Officer - 1:30:15

statistical report, an annual statistical report, details of complaints received and

investigated through the Council's corporate complaints procedure which have resulted in

payments or other benefits being provided by the Council in cases of maladministration.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 1:30:27

Thank you, Esli, you've done an excellent job. So we will add that to the work programme

as well and just to say to all members and newer members in particular, it is an evolving

programme, so if there are things that you wish to be considered or looked at going forward,

please do not hesitate to contact me in the first instance and we can look to getting that scheduled.

Okay, but our members can...oh, the Councillor else.

Cllr Simon Rouse - 1:30:51

Sorry, apologies, I was just sort of on the right page. Can I just clarify, I think I'm on the right page, so if I'm wrong just...

Could you give us the page?

I'm just telling you, page 85 of the pack,

11 of 36 of the report, I think.

Is the bottom review, the corporate PMO assurance,

which is marked for Q4, is that the same one

we've been discussing, or where's the one

we've been discussing, and apologies?

Russell Heppleston - Head of Business Assurance and Chief Auditor - 1:31:24

Yeah, the one we've been discussing is,

it's the follow -up assurance work,

so we've just added it into the plan

as a validation piece of work.

So it should be in the same.

Q2, Scoping and Progress, what is it?

Cable.

Fine, thank you.

It's 85.

Yes, 85.

Yes, so that is now currently in progress.

Thank you.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 1:31:45

Councillor Wilson.

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 1:31:49

Again, you might have to refresh my memory

on this one, Chairman.

Did we discuss, I think, under your predecessor,

circulating the minutes of the risk management group

to the Audit and Governance Committee?

I can see on the forward plan there's a sort

of six -monthly update scheduled.

But I think one of the things we had previously discussed was

circulating the minutes, perhaps in the part two section.

And perhaps either you or Mr Ashton

could refresh my memory as to what was agreed.

But I think your predecessor was certainly doing that

and I can't remember where we got to on it.

Thank you.

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 1:32:36

Can you refer instantly to Leslie here?

Leslie Ashton - Principal Committees and Governance Services Officer - 1:32:39

So all current members of the Order and Governance Committee

can access the risk management group papers

on modgov so it's just probably a case of me being more proactive in circulating

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 1:32:57

them post metre you happy with that councillor Wilson any further questions

11 Action Log

members content to agree thank you okay that moves us on to the action log which

is on page one three three of your packs do members have any questions on the

Action log.

No?

Excellent.

Okay then, well under that basis,

the public session of this meeting is now concluded.

12 Date of the next meeting

The date of the next meeting is Tuesday the 29th

of September 10 a .m. here at the Gateway.

13 Exclusion of the public

We move on to agenda item 13,

which is exclusion of the public

to resolve the under section 100A4

of the Local Government Act 1972.

The public be excluded from the meeting

on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined

in the paragraph indicated in part one of schedule 12 of the Act.

Our members attempt to agree.

Agreed.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Cllr Robert Carington

Conservative

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Cllr Anna Crabtree

Liberal Democrats

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Cllr David Moore

Conservative

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Cllr Chris Poll

Conservative

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Cllr Simon Rouse

Conservative

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Cllr Kelly Thornton

Liberal Democrats

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Cllr Matthew Walsh

Conservative

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Cllr Stuart Wilson

Independent

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Audit and Governance CommitteeTuesday, 21st July 2026 at 10:00am

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:00:01

1 Apologies

Leslie Ashton - Principal Committees and Governance Services Officer - 0:00:23

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:00:29

Leslie Ashton - Principal Committees and Governance Services Officer - 0:00:57

Cllr Kelly Thornton - 0:00:59

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 0:01:04

Cllr Chris Poll - 0:01:08

Cllr Anna Crabtree - 0:01:12

Cllr David Moore - 0:01:17

Cllr Simon Rouse - 0:01:22

Sarah Brown - KPMG - 0:01:28

Alexander Prestridge - Audit Delivery Manager - 0:01:34

Chris Ward - Senior Member Services and Governance Officer - 0:01:40

Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer - 0:01:44

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:01:50

Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer - 0:01:57

David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer - 0:02:01

Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager - 0:02:09

Jo Baschnonga - 0:02:15

Russell Heppleston - Head of Business Assurance and Chief Auditor - 0:02:21

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:02:28

2 Appointment of Vice-Chairman

3 Declarations of interest

4 Minutes

Cllr Simon Rouse - 0:03:12

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:04:08

5 Treasury Management Annual Report 2025/26

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:04:30

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:07:33

Cllr Simon Rouse - 0:07:49

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:08:58

David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer - 0:10:24

Cllr Simon Rouse - 0:11:30

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:12:23

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 0:12:27

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:15:22

Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer - 0:15:26

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 0:16:47

Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer - 0:17:09

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 0:17:21

Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer - 0:17:36

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:18:10

David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer - 0:18:13

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:18:22

David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer - 0:18:25

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:19:26

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 0:19:29

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:20:03

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 0:20:16

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:20:21

Cllr Anna Crabtree - 0:20:23

Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer - 0:21:30

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:22:57

Cllr Kelly Thornton - 0:23:04

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:23:32

Cllr Kelly Thornton - 0:24:53

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:25:05

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:25:26

Cllr Chris Poll - 0:25:31

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:26:46

Fiona Jump - Deputy Chief Finance Officer - 0:28:51

David Skinner - Director of Finance and S151 Officer - 0:29:50

Cllr Chris Poll - 0:30:51

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:31:31

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:32:31

6 Chief Auditor’s Annual Audit Opinion 2025/26

Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager - 0:32:46

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:39:51

Cllr Simon Rouse - 0:40:21

Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager - 0:42:39

Cllr Simon Rouse - 0:45:09

Selina Harlock - Audit and Assurance Manager - 0:46:20

Russell Heppleston - Head of Business Assurance and Chief Auditor - 0:47:55

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:53:00

Cllr Stuart Wilson - 0:53:05

Cllr Matthew Walsh - 0:56:29

Cllr Robert Carington - 0:57:07

Audit and Governance Committee
Tuesday, 21st July 2026 at 10:00am