Issue - meetings

To receive and approve the contents of the Internal Audit Mandate and Charter, to approve it, and support Internal Audit in its undertakings.

DECISION:

·       To accept and approve the contents of the Internal Audit Mandate and Charter, to be approved, and support Internal Audit in its undertakings.

In accordance with the requirements of the Global Internal Audit Standards (GIAS), an Internal Audit Charter must be produced with the contents of the Charter addressing the Local Government Action Note and the Code of Practice for Internal Audit Governance in UK Local Government (the Code) provided by CIPFA to support authorities to establish their internal audit arrangements and provide oversight and support for internal audit.

It was explained that the Code noted that the chief executive / internal audit manager was responsible for preparing a charter that complied with GIAS in the UK public sector and the Governance and Audit Committee should be satisfied that it encompassed governance arrangements for internal audit. It was reiterated that the Charter must contain elements that ensured a clearly defined and effective function – a mandate that clearly set out the purpose and mission of the internal audit function; that definitions of the terms 'board' and 'senior managers', for the purposes of the internal audit function and that the term Organisational Position defined an internal audit position within the organisation, ensuring that it had adequate authority and independence which included unlimited access to senior management and the board.

In addition to the training that Committee members had received (28-01-26) which provided an update about their responsibilities as Governance and Audit Committee members, as a result of introducing the Global Internal Audit Standards and the Application Note that came into force in the public sector on 1 April 2025, members were reminded that the Committee's Terms of Reference stated a responsibility to ensure that the charter encompassed governance arrangements for internal audit.

The members thanked the officer for the report

RESOLVED:

·        To accept and approve the contents of the Internal Audit Mandate and Charter and support Internal Audit in its undertakings.