Agenda and minutes

SWT Audit, Governance and Standards Committee
Wednesday, 25th September, 2019 6.15 pm

Venue: Council Chamber - West Somerset House. View directions

Contact: Clare Rendell Email: c.rendell@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

29.

Apologies

30.

Minutes of the previous meeting of the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee pdf icon PDF 258 KB

    To approve the minutes of the previous meeting of the Committee.

    Minutes:

    (Minutes of the meeting of the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee held on 31 July 2019 circulated with the agenda)

     

    Resolved that the minutes of the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee held on 31 July 2019 be confirmed as a correct record.

31.

Declarations of Interest

    To receive and note any declarations of disclosable pecuniary or prejudicial or personal interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

     

    (The personal interests of Councillors and Clerks of Somerset County Council, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes.)

    Minutes:

    Members present at the meeting declared the following personal interests in their capacity as a Councillor or Clerk of a County, Town or Parish Council or any other Local Authority:-

     

    Name

    Minute No.

    Description of Interest

    Reason

    Action Taken

    Cllr S Coles

    All Items

    SCC & Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr C Ellis

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr M Lithgow

    All Items

    Wellington

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr J Lloyd

    All Items

    Wellington & Sampford Arundel

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr F Smith-Roberts

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke

    Cllr V Stock-Williams

    All Items

    Wellington

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr T Venner

    All Items

    Minehead

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr L Whetlor

    All Items

    Watchet

    Personal

    Spoke

     

32.

Public Participation

    The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

     

    For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

    Minutes:

    No members of the public had requested to speak on any item on the agenda.

33.

Audit, Governance and Standards Committee Action Plan pdf icon PDF 6 KB

    To update the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee on the progress of resolutions and recommendations from previous meetings of the Committee.

    Minutes:

    (Copy of the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee Action Plan, circulated with the agenda).

     

    Resolved that the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee Action Plan be noted.

34.

Audit, Governance and Standards Committee Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 112 KB

    To receive items and review the Forward Plan.

    Minutes:

    (Copy of the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee Forward Plan, circulated with the agenda).

     

    Councillors were reminded that if they had an item they wanted to add to the agenda, that they should send their requests to the Governance Team.

     

    Resolved that the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee Forward Plan be noted.

35.

Grant Thornton External Audit - Annual Audit Letter 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 199 KB

36.

Grant Thornton External Audit - Progress & Update Report pdf icon PDF 211 KB

    The purpose of the report is to provide the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee with a progress update regarding the work of the external auditors, Grant Thornton, together with information relating to emerging issues which may be relevant to the Council.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    During the discussion, the following points were raised:-

    ·         Councillors queried whether there were any ramifications for signing the Taunton Deane Borough Council (TDBC) accounts after the July 2019 deadline.

    The External Auditor advised that the Council would not incur any penalties for late submission of their accounts.  When the accounts were published on the Council website, they had a notice to explain why the audit opinion was not included.

    ·         Councillors queried why there had been a delay with the TDBC accounts.

    The External Auditor advised that there were several reasons why the accounts had been delayed which included an objection which had led to additional work.

    ·         Councillors queried whether the accounts had ever been submitted late before.

    The Section 151 Officer advised that he was not aware of the accounts being submitted late in the last 10 years.  However, the timescales for submission had changed from September to July in the last couple of years. 

    ·         Concern was raised on the timescale given for the objection to be completed.

    The External Auditor explained there was no set timescale, however, the objection had to be completed before the audit could be signed off.

    ·         Councillors requested clarification on how the objection was dealt with.

    The External Auditor gave clarification on the process.

    ·         Councillors queried who the lead officer was on matters that related to Brexit.

    The lead officer was Robert Hillier, Head of Communications.

     

    Resolved that the Committee considered and noted the report.

37.

SWAP Internal Audit - Progress Update 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 303 KB

    The purpose of the report is to update the Committee on the function that Internal Audit play in the central role in corporate governance by providing assurance to the Corporate Governance and Standards Committee, looking over financial controls and checking on the probity of the organisation.

    The 2019-20 Annual Audit Plan is to provide independent and objective assurance on SWT Internal Control Environment.  This work will support the Annual Governance Statement.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    During the discussion, the following points were discussed:-

    ·         Councillors queried whether the revised target date for the Bereavement Service Business Plan was achievable.

    The Internal Auditor advised that the service managers had set the target dates.

    ·         Councillors requested an update on the Business Plan be presented at the December meeting of the Committee.

    ·         Councillors queried whether the old cemetery/crematorium administrative system would be kept whilst the new system was trialled, to ensure there was a contingency plan set up.

    The Internal Auditor advised that the old system did not add any value, so they would not recommend to keep it whilst the new system was being installed.

    ·         Councillors queried how long the new Service Manager had been in post.

    The Internal Auditor advised they had been in post for approximately 5-6 months.

    ·         Concern was raised on the follow up audit on Supplier Resilience and Councillors requested an update for the December meeting of the Committee.

     

    Resolved that the Committee noted the progress made in delivery of the 2019/20 internal audit plan and significant findings since the previous update in June 2019.

38.

Annual Governance Statement Action Plan Update pdf icon PDF 229 KB

    The purpose of the report is to present the Committee with an update of progress against the Annual Governance Statement Action Plan for 2019/20.

    Minutes:

    During the discussion, the following points were raised:-

    ·         Councillors queried when the audit on internal arrangements would be presented to the Committee.

    The information would be on the agenda for the December meeting of the Committee.

    ·         Concern was raised that items were being pushed back to the December meeting date.

    The Monitoring Officer advised that prior to April 2019, officers had been responsible for managing 3 Councils and had worked on getting processes in place for the New Council and were now working on implementing and updating policies, which was the reason for the work being completed for the December meeting of the Committee.

     

    Resolved that the Committee noted the progress against the Annual Governance Statement Action Plan for 2019/20.

39.

Corporate Equality Action Plan pdf icon PDF 439 KB

    This report contains the Council draft Corporate Equality Action Plan which identifies actions we will take to deliver the equality objectives.

    The Action Plan will be a ‘living document’ which will enable additional actions to be added. Any additions will be brought to the attention of the Audit, Governance & Standards Committee as part of the Plan’s review cycle.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    During the discussion, the following points were raised:-

    ·         Councillors welcomed the report and requested amendments were made on sections that included information on disabled people ambassadors, apprentices and graduate schemes and training on deaf awareness.

    ·         Councillors wanted to ensure that the Somerset Equality Officer’s Group (SEOG) objective that had been omitted, had been included and carried out.

    ·         Councillors queried what work had been carried out on objective 8 for gypsy and travellers.

    The Strategy Specialist advised that the SEOG objectives were something that SWT had joined but had not led on, so officers wanted to extend the objectives rather than creating new ones.

     

    Resolved that the Committee:-

    ·         Reviewed and recommended approval of this Plan to the Executive, with the following amendments:

    -        To ensure that two disabled people ambassadors (to include one officer and one councillor) were appointed as part of the Action Plan;

    -        To remove the word ‘free’ out of the Waccy Wednesday part of the free to attend public events section;

    -        To encourage recruitment of apprentices and graduate scheme posts to include roles at the Depot and business administration; and

    -        To amend the timescale for Customer Services to be trained in deaf awareness to 2019/20, provided the budget was available.

    ·         Noted the agreed Equality Objectives and recommend the inclusion of the additional objective referred to within para 4.10 of the report.

40.

Local Government Ombudsman Report pdf icon PDF 218 KB

41.

Access to Information - Exclusion of the Press and Public

    During discussion of the following item it may be necessary to pass the following resolution to exclude the press and public having reflected on Article 13 13.02(e) (a presumption in favour of openness) of the Constitution.  This decision may be required because consideration of this matter in public may disclose information falling within one of the descriptions of exempt information in Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act.  The Committee will need to decide whether, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption, outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

     

    Recommend that under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the next item of business on the ground that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 respectively of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, namely information relating to any individual.

    Minutes:

    Resolved that the press and public be excluded during consideration of agenda item 14 on the grounds that, if the press and public were present during the item, there would be likely to be a disclosure to them of exempt information of the class specified in Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 as amended as follows: The item contained information that could release confidential information that related to an individual. It was therefore agreed that after consideration of all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

42.

Monitoring Officer Update