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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School, Queens Road, Brentwood, Essex CM14 4EX

Contact: Zoe Borman 

Items
No. Item

44.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Cllr Haigh with Cllr S Cloke substituting.  Apologies were also received from Cllr Chilvers with no substitute.  Cllr Chilvers sent her apologies due to lack of accessibility at the venue.  Mr Summers is looking into this issue to ensure this venue and other venues used by the Council is accessible to all.

 

 

 

45.

Minutes of the previous Audit and Scrutiny held on 23.3.2019 pdf icon PDF 88 KB

Minutes:

The Minutes of the Audit and Scrutiny Committee held on 13th March 2019 were approved as a true record.

46.

Minutes from the previous Regulatory and Governance Committee held on 6.3.2019 pdf icon PDF 88 KB

Minutes:

The Minutes of the Regulatory and Governance Committee held on 6th March 2019 were agreed as a true record.

 

Following a question from the previous Chair of Regulatory and Governance Committee, Cllr Rowlands, Mr Summers advised members regarding levels of fines for breach of GDPR.  There are two levels of fines imposed which are determined on the type of and severity of the breach.  These are between £10m and £20m.

 

 

 

 

47.

Terms of Reference pdf icon PDF 84 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

At Annual Council on 15th May 2019, the terms of reference for each committee for the municipal year 2019/2020 were approved.

 

Cllr Hirst questioned on page 25 of the report the relevance of the Work Programme being reported to Policy, Resources and Economic Development Committee and whether this continued to be appropriate given the change in the Committee structure and that this Committee was now solely Audit and Scrutiny; and the likelihood of topics under scrutiny being the work of those other committees.

 

After a full discussion Cllr Hirst MOVED and Cllr Nolan SECONDED to approve the recommendations in the report subject to item 2 on page 25 under the heading “Scrutiny Activity” being removed. 

 

A vote was taken by a show of hands and it was RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY  

 

1.         That the Committee notes the Terms of Reference (Appendix A) of   the Audit and Scrutiny Committee.

 

2.         That any amendments made by the Committee are delegated to the Chief Operating Officer in consultation with the Chair and Vice Chair of the committee with a report to be made to Ordinary Council Meeting for approval.

 

 

Reason for Recommendation

The Council operates a committee system form of governance and is required bylaw to establish certain committees and has discretion to appoint other

committees to facilitate the effective conduct of business under that committee system.

48.

Draft Statement of Accounts 2018-2019 and Annual Governance Statement

To follow.

Minutes:

Item 5 was removed from the agenda. However, a verbal update was given.

 

The Draft Statement of Accounts 2018/19 have been signed by the Interim Chief Finance Officer on 31st May 2019 by the statutory deadline. They have been published on our website and are subject to the relevant inspection period under section 26 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014.

 

These accounts are still subject to External Audit by Ernst & Young LLP. Their findings will be presented within the Audit Results Report at the next Committee following the completion of their Audit in July 2019 along with the Final audited Statement of Accounts. External Auditors must issue their opinion by the statutory deadline of 31st July.

 

The Annual Governance statement has also been prepared by officers and reviewed by the Leader and Chair. This statement is also subject to External Audit review and will therefore be brought back to the next committee and published alongside the statement of accounts.

 

The date for the next Audit and Scrutiny Committee has been moved to Monday 29th July and the venue is to be confirmed.

49.

Internal Audit Progress Report 2018-2019 pdf icon PDF 87 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

This report was intended to inform the Audit and Scrutiny Committee of

progress made against the approved internal audit plan for 2018/19,

which had been approved by the Audit Committee in March 2018.

 

The reports had been finalised since the last Committee and a

summary of findings was included in the progress report:

 

·         Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

·         General Data Protection Regulations

·         Homelessness

 

The executive summaries of the above audits was included in Appendix A –

Progress report.

 

The full reports were made available on request.

 

A summary of outstanding recommendations from previous audits was

included in Appendix B – Follow up report.

 

A motion was MOVED by Cllr Nolan and SECONDED by Cllr Tanner to approve the recommendations in the report.

 

Following a full discussion a vote was taken by a show of hands and it was RESOLVED:

 

1.         That the Committee received and noted the contents of the Internal Audit Progress Report attached in Appendix A.

 

2.         That the Committee received and noted the contents of the Internal Audit Follow Up Report attached in Appendix B.

 

Reason for Recommendation

To monitor the progress of work against the internal audit plan.

50.

Member's Enquiry System pdf icon PDF 78 KB

Minutes:

This report set out the continuing review work with regard to the new

Members Enquiry system.

 

At the previous committee Members were advised that 6 members cross

party were invited to give feedback on the new Member Enquiry System in

order for officers to note the comments and explore any modifications that

could be made.

 

At the Audit & Scrutiny Committee on the 13thMarch 2019, Min 375

refers, members considered a report detailing the progress made to date

on matters raised by members. It was resolved that Officers would report

back to the next meeting of this committee identifying any further

feedback and updates from comments received, including actions to be

taken. To date there were no further updates.

 

The Chair of the Policy, Resources and Economic Development

Committee had requested a report on the Members Enquiry System be

made to the 10th  July 2019 committee.

 

A motion was MOVED by Cllr Nolan and SECONDED by Cllr Tanner to move the recommendations in the report.

 

A vote was taken by a show of hands and it was resolved unanimously that:

 

1.         The Committee notes that at the present time there are no further

updates.

 

2.         The Committee notes that a report on the Members Enquiry system will be made to the Policy, Resources and Economic Development Committee on the 10thJuly 2019 for their consideration.

 

Reason for Recommendation

To ensure the Member Enquiry System is efficient and effective.

51.

Scrutiny Work Programme 2019-2020 pdf icon PDF 87 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Constitution requires that the Audit & Scrutiny Committee agrees its

Scrutiny work programme at each meeting of the Committee. This report

identifies the current status of existing scrutiny working groups and sets out

the process for gaining members’ views on future scrutiny matters to be

considered by the committee.

 

Set out below were the Working Groups that previously existed as part of the

2018/19 Scrutiny programme and their current status.

 

 

No

Working Group

Status

1

Leisure Strategy

Completed – report to be made to the Policy, Resources and Economic Development Committee on the 10th July 2019.

2

Local Development Plan

Ongoing.

3

Town Centre

Completed – Design guide to be incorporated with Regulation 19 of the Local Development Plan.

4

Performance Indicators and Formal Complaints

Ongoing.

 

In addition, legislation required that an Annual report is made to the Committee on the work of the Community Safety Partnership. This report is normally made at the March committee each year.

 

Therefore, it was suggested that the following items continued to be reported to the committee as part of its Scrutiny Work Programme.

 

·         Local Development Plan

·         Performance Indicators and Formal Complaints

·         Community Safety Partnership

·          

In relation to new scrutiny matters under its Terms of Reference any scrutiny matter identified by members and/or the Audit & Scrutiny Committee must be agreed first by the Policy, Resources and Economic Development Committee. It was suggested that all members be sent the request form immediately following this meeting so these can be considered by the 10th July 2019 Policy, Resources and Economic Development Committee.

 

Following a full discussion Cllr Hirst MOVED an amendment to 2.1 and this was SECONDED  by Cllr McKinlay.

 

2.1       That the Committee agrees that the request form as attached at Appendix A be made available to all members immediately following this meeting with completed responses to be  returned to the Chair of Audit and Scrutiny Committee, and officers, for consideration and in addition a work plan to be approved by this Committee as appropriate or referred to another Committee. 

 

This was accepted by the Chair.

 

A vote was taken by a show of hands and it was RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY:

 

1.         That the Committee considers and agrees to include the matters as set out in 1.4 above to the 2019/20 Scrutiny work programme.

 

2.         That the Committee agrees that the request form as attached at Appendix A be made available to all members immediately following this meeting with completed responses to be  returned to the Chair of Audit and Scrutiny Committee, and officers, for consideration and in addition a work plan to be approved by this Committee as appropriate or referred to another Committee. 

 

 

Reason for Recommendation

The Constitution requires that the Audit & Scrutiny Committee agrees its Scrutiny work programme at each meeting of the Committee. 

52.

Urgent Business

An item of business may only be considered where the Chair is of the opinion that, by reason of special circumstances, which shall be specified in the Minutes, the item should be considered as a matter of urgency.

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

 

 

The meeting concluded at 20.00