To
approve the statement so that it can be signed by the Council Leader and the
Chief Executive
Decision:
To accept the report
To approve the Statement
To recommend that the Council Leader and
the Chief Executive sign the statement
Minutes:
The statement was presented by the Assistant Head - Revenue and Risk.
He explained that the statement, although not part of the accounts, was a
statutory document that needed to be published with
the accounts. In accordance with the Accounts and Audit (Wales) Regulations and the CIPFA Code of
Practice, all Local Authorities must ensure that a statement of internal
management is in place. It was reported that the Chief
Executive and the Council Leader were required to sign the statement, although
the Audit and Governance Committee's approval was needed.
Some background was given to the report, noting that all Local Authorities
had a duty to present an annual statement, and that although the format or
method had changed, the content was very similar. In Gwynedd, it was the
Governance Arrangement Assessment Group, led by the Chief Executive, who
reviewed the risk register. The group discusses risks within 23 different
governance fields, noting the controls the Council have in place in order to
mitigate these risks. This was done in response to the
CIPFA framework, which identified core principles for good governance.
It was highlighted
that a new risk had been added during 2020/21, namely 'inadequate arrangements
and action by Council Services to manage health and safety risks effectively'.
It was added that this risk had originally been included within a more general
risk 'Risk Management Arrangements', however, it was
considered that Health, Safety and Well-being presented unique risks and as a
result it would be appropriate for the field to have specific attention within
the governance risk register.
It was reported
that the Group had concluded that there was 0 fields of very high risks, 2
number of high risks, 12 number of medium risks and 9 number of low risk
fields. It was noted that the high risk fields were
'Culture' and the new risk 'Health, Safety and Well-being'.
Attention was also drawn to a change in risk score 'weaknesses when
controlling public finance' that entails that the Council's finance is not used
and prioritised. The score was adapted, although the Council's financial
planning arrangements continued to be strong, because the probability score had
changed to 3 as further savings plans would be more
difficult to realise.
During the ensuing
discussion, the following observations were made by Members:
·
More information was required about the new
established team to strengthen the support to Scrutiny arrangements
·
It was necessary to consider the risk to Council
property - this was likely to increase as a result of
Council staff working from home and offices being empty.
In response to a
request for more information about CCTV control
arrangements it was highlighted that a new information plan had been
established by Corporate Support in response to identifying the risk of
protecting / safeguarding data that appears on CCTV. It was noted that
it was proposed to ensure that the information captured on CCTV was considered
as 'data' and as a result was controlled by data management guidelines.
RESOLVED
To accept the report
To approve the statement
To recommend that the Council Leader and the Chief Executive sign the
statement
Supporting documents: