The Audit Manager led Members through the internal audit report to 31 December 2023 that gave details of audit matters and any emerging issues, not only in relation to audit but risk management and corporate governance.  The Audit Manager updated Members on the current position on the 2023/23 Audit Plan, which was still slightly behind schedule: six governance audits had now been completed and two were still in progress, one of which should be completed by April 2024.

Six audit reports were issued in the quarter; all provided good or substantial assurance. An overview of the findings arising from each was given in the Executive Summaries in Appendix A to the report.

Appendix B to the report updated Members on progress made on implementing the audit recommendations reported at previous meetings.  There were currently 12 recommendations in the ‘Old Years’ section, most of which related to 2022/23, but four older recommendations still remained outstanding and none of these had moved forward in the last quarter.

The Audit Manager met with the Head of Digital and Customer Services and IT Manager on 28 February 2024 to discuss his concerns about the apparent lack of progress made on many of the recommendations still outstanding in their service area. These included the ICT Governance (Disaster Recovery Plan issue), two Data Protection issues and some recommendations from other more recent audits. This resulted in a number of action points and a commitment to resolve the oldest recommendations by the time that Members considered the report.  The Audit Manager advised that the Disaster Recovery Plan was in its second draft, but there were still some gaps.  Members raised concerns about the lack of progress and it was agreed that the Chair of the Audit and Standards Committee would write to the Head of Digital and Customer Services and IT Manager to express their concerns, with an invitation to the next meeting of the Committee to update Members.

The Audit Manager also intended to discuss all longstanding recommendations with the Senior Leadership Team in the near future, to promote further progress in this area.

The current year position had seen a slight dip in performance, which could be wholly attributed to the unusually high volume of new recommendations added since the June quarter as a result of the many issues found at the ICT Asset Management, Blackfriars Spine Road Project and Housing Company Governance audits. Good progress was however being made in respect of most of these recommendations, although a number of them were yet to be fully resolved. These cases were shown as ‘work-in-progress’.

The audits scheduled to take place in the first quarter of 2024/25 were yet to be determined and would be selected from the new Audit Plan once approved elsewhere on the agenda.

The number of longstanding audit recommendations was slowly decreasing, but progress made on these still needed to be improved.

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and the following points were noted during the discussions:

•     Members expressed concerns that the ‘Business Case’ and ‘Budgetary Control’ had only partially met compliance on the Corporate Programme Management Audit;

•     the consultant undertaking a review of the Capital Programme had now completed his work and would be presenting recommendations to the Senior Leadership Team in the coming weeks. Reports would then be presented to the relevant committees;

•     the Audit Manager advised that the funding from Homes England for the Blackfriars infrastructure project had been extended and agreed, with the possibility of more funding to come;

•     the timetable for the completion of the Blackfriars infrastructure programme had slipped and regular updates were reported to the new Corporate Programme Board, along with other projects where there were variances, reported by exception;

•     consideration should be given to how the Council funds projects in the future that were likely to result in losses, but would be beneficial to the Authority;

•     Members wished to pass on their congratulations to the Revenues and Benefits Manager, as all controls had been met in the Benefits Audit; and

•     the Chief Executive confirmed that a report on the work of the Corporate Programme Board would be brought to a future meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED: That:

1)     the Internal Audit report to 31 December 2023 be noted; and

2)   the Head of Digital and Customer Services be invited to a future  meeting of the Audit and Standards Committee, to provide an update on the older years audit recommendations from their service area.