Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber

Contact: Wendy Johnson 

Items
No. Item

49.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Hoult and Councillor Mrs Tranter.

50.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

There were no Declarations of Interests.

51.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 70 KB

Minutes:

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 27 March 2019, as printed and previously circulated, were taken as read and approved as a correct record.

52.

Annual Governance Statement pdf icon PDF 306 KB

(Report of the Head of Finance & Procurement – Anthony Thomas)

Minutes:

Consideration was given to the Annual Governance Statement 2018/19.  Mr Thomas (Head of Finance & Procurement) provided a Presentation on the key points and explained that any relevant authority must each financial year conduct a review of the effectiveness of the system of internal control and prepare and approve an Annual Governance Statement.  He stated the current Committee were best placed to endorse the Statement as it related to 2018/19 and the Committee had received all relevant information on internal control and governance throughout the financial year.

 

Mr Thomas explained that the Annual Governance Statement enables the Council to explain to the community, service users, tax payers and other stakeholders its governance arrangements and how the controls it has in place manages risks of failure in delivering its outcomes.

 

He said current best practice requires a Local Code of Corporate Governance to be produced based on seven core principles.  Mr Thomas summarised and discussed the seven principles and explained that the drafting of the Annual Governance Statement takes place over the whole financial year and involves his team gathering and assessing the implications of the views of Internal Audit, an annual review of the effectiveness of Internal Audit, the views of the External Auditors, the views of the Head of Paid Service (Chief Executive), Monitoring Officer and himself as Section 151 Officer.

 

He explained that a briefing note had gone to Leadership Team on the Delivery Plan on 11 April 2019 and that Heads of Service provided written assurance statements using an Internal Control Checklist.

 

Questions were asked as to the comments received from the questionnaire to Members (Chairmen, Vice-Chairmen and the Leader of the Minority Group). Miss Jane Irving (Senior Business Advisor) said she collated the replies and 17 responses had been received out of 22 from the Committee Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen and nothing really significant had been highlighted.  There had been comments requesting further planning training but these sessions had already been planned for the next municipal year. 

 

A Member asked if the seven principles of best practice applied to all Government bodies as it was a worry that HS2 did not comply with at least five of the seven principles.  Mr Thomas said he believed the Police and probably the NHS did adhere to similar principles but as HS2 was a limited company it was not so prevalent, however, they are supposed to have the correct governance in place.  

 

The Risk Management Process, particularly the Corporate Risk Register was discussed and the performance information which is reported to Cabinet, Council and Overview and Scrutiny Committee was included.

 

Mr Thomas said that this Committee is responsible for promoting and maintaining high standards of conduct by Members and ensuring they observe the Members Code of Conduct.  (A member queried whether the guide mentioned in Appendix A on page 15 had been sent to all Councillors as there had been a lot of issues around the Register of Interests Forms recently and yet there was no reference to these at all).  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

53.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 90 KB

Minutes:

Members noted the Work Programme but as this was the last meeting of the municipal year it was agreed that the new Audit & Member Standards Committee would review and update.

 

The Committee thanked the Chairman on behalf of all Members of Lichfield District Council for his excellent leadership during his time as Chairman of Audit & Member Standards Committee. The Chairman thanked all Officers and said he had enjoyed his term as Chairman.

54.

Exclusion of Public and Press

RESOLVED: “That, as publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the confidential nature of the business to be transacted, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business, which would involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972”

 

                                                IN PRIVATE

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  That, as publicity would be prejudicial to public interest by reason of the confidential nature of the business to be transacted, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business which would involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

 

IN PRIVATE

55.

Confidential Minutes of the Previous Meeting

Minutes:

The Confidential Minutes of the Meeting held on 27 March 2019, as printed and previously circulated, were taken as read and approved as a correct record.