Issue - meetings

This report updates councillors on the position of the council’s Corporate Risk Register. The main updates are as follows:

·         Two new risks have been added to the council’s Corporate Risk Register during the quarter:

CR18 - Failure in customer interface

CR19 – Failure to determine planning applications within statutory timescales, or within agreed extensions of time (EOT)

·         Corporate Risk CR17 - Risk to Reputation of Place & Council if summer arrangements are not managed – has been removed from the Corporate Risk Register

·         Details of those risks where a review was not possible during the quarter are included.

The Risk and Insurance Manager presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'C' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The report provided an update for the Committee on the Council’s Corporate Risk Register and included a summary of the changes to Corporate Risk during the third Quarter period of 2021/22. It was noted that the particular impact of the pandemic was now reflected within each individual risk rather than being shown as an overarching risk.

It was reported that, following discussion at a previous meeting of the Committee, two risks had been added to the Corporate Risk Register during the Quarter, namely, ‘Failure in customer interface’ (Corporate Risk 24) and ‘Failure to determine planning applications within statutory timescales or within agreed extensions of time’ (Corporate Risk 19). It was also noted that Corporate Risk CR17 ‘Risk to Reputation of Place and Council if summer arrangements are not managed’ had been removed from the Corporate Register and re-established as a service level risk.

In relation to Corporate Risk 24, the Committee heard from the Director of Customer and Business Delivery about measures in place to address immediate concerns as well as the implications for longer term improvement offered through the BCP Council transformation programme.  In respect of Corporate Risk 19, the Head of Planning also outlined steps being taken and outlined the work of the Planning Improvement Board which was co-ordinating improvement going forward.

Members welcomed the addition of the two new risks as described which reflected the concerns of the Committee and the frustrations of customers and which would need to come back to the Committee for further detailed discussion as part of the next Quarterly update. Members emphasized the importance that they placed upon there being an effective infrastructure in place to handle customer contact in the most effective manner. Individual members of the Committee referred to individual examples and specific experiences within areas of customer services where there was potential for improvement.

The Chairman of the Committee explained the proposal to add ‘Climate Change Delivery Strategy’ to the Corporate Risk Register (as Corporate Risk 20) and there was agreement that this new risk should be added to the register to enable the Council to monitor progress in this critical area.

The Risk and Insurance Manager responded to questions about implementation of the Risk Management Framework for BCP Council and emphasized the importance of ensuring that the framework achieved the right fit with the current impending changes in the Organisation. Though this presented challenges, good progress was reported and a draft version of the framework, including an accessible format for Members, would be presented to the Committee as soon as possible. The framework would also continue to underline the importance of taking a strategic approach to risk management.

In the meantime, reassurances were given about the continuous “horizon scanning” being undertaken to identify issues that might give rise to risk. Any matters identified  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68