To receive the update on Internal Audit & Investigations including quarter 1 plan for 2021/22.

The Lead Specialist, Audit and Investigation presented the update on Internal Audit and Investigations including the 2021/22 Internal Audit Strategy and 2021/22 Audit and Investigation Work Programme Quarter 1

During the discussion of this item, the following points were made:

·       The report provided an update on the work of Internal Audit and Investigations activity up to December 2020.  There had been no audits that had received less than level 2 Audit opinion during this period.

·       For the remainder of the financial year the team was focused on completing the remaining audits contained within the 2020/21 Audit and Investigation Plan to feed into the Head of Internal Audit Opinion on the Council’s Governance, Internal Control and Risk Management Arrangements.

·       This year had been a period of uncertainty as councils had responded to the pandemic and their changing risk profiles. The extent to which the team had been able to deliver planned audit activity had been impacted because of the availability of auditees who had needed to respond to the effects of the pandemic within their services

·       Usually, an annual Audit Plan would be prepared for the forthcoming financial year.   However, it had been agreed with the Corporate Leadership Team that a one-year plan would not be practical at this time.  Flexibility and forward thinking were required in planning audit activities for the forthcoming financial year and as such, it had been agreed that for the 2021/22 financial year, audit planning would be on a quarterly basis.

·       Councillor Sargeant commented that the plan of work for Q1 was quite ambitious.  The Lead Specialist Audit and Investigations stated that the Plan had been produced according to the resources available at the time. However, a watching brief was required because of the impacts there had been on resource availability within the Internal Audit team during the current year due to redeployments from the team to service areas to assist with responses to the pandemic. The Committee would be informed of any significant changes.

·       Councillor Burgess stated that in order for the Climate Emergency audit to be successful it needed to address the level of carbon savings planned to be achieved by the Climate Emergency Action Plan.  The Lead Specialist Internal Audit and Investigation indicated that this could be considered when the audit was scoped.  The Assistant Director Governance added that consideration would be given to what external expertise might be required to assist in the audit.

RESOLVED:  That

1)    The 2020/21 Internal Audit and Investigation Progress Report be noted;

2)    The Internal Audit and Investigation Strategy for 2021/22 be approved;

3)    The Quarter 1 Plan for 2021/22 be approved;

4)    The Internal Audit on Climate Emergency include an accounting style carbon audit of the Climate Emergency Action Plan targets, the methodology and the underlying assumptions, in the Climate Emergency Action Plan.