Issue - meetings

The Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015* require councils to produce an Annual Governance Statement (AGS) to accompany its Statement of Accounts.

This report seeks approval of the draft AGS prior to the statutory inspection period.  The final AGS will be approved by this committee as part of the Statement of Accounts sign off process and report; any changes necessary to the AGS in the intervening period will be highlighted in this report.

The AGS concludes that BCP Council “has effective and fit-for-purpose governance arrangements in place in accordance with the governance framework”.

After considering all the sources of assurance (for governance arrangements), BCP Corporate Management Board identified that the following significant governance issues existed:

·       Governance of Children’s Social Services

·       Governance Arrangements with External Bodies

·       Delay in the completion of the 2020/21 External Audit

An action plan to address these significant governance issues has been produced and is being implemented. An update against the action plan will be brought to Audit and Governance Committee in January 2023.

*and as amended by the Accounts and Audit (Amendment) Regulations 2021

The Head of Audit and Management Assurance presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'H' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Committee was reminded of the requirement imposed on Councils pursuant to The Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 (as amended by the Accounts and Audit (Amendment) Regulations 2021) to produce an Annual Governance Statement (AGS) to accompany its Statement of Accounts.

It was explained that the AGS was compiled from a wide range of evidence sources across the Council, including in-year elements and a year-end assessment and these various sources were listed for information.

The current report sought approval of the draft AGS prior to the statutory inspection period.  The final AGS would be submitted to the Committee for approval at its meeting in January 2023 as part of the Statement of Accounts sign off process and report. Any changes necessary to the AGS in the intervening period would be highlighted in the later report and, in response to questions, it was confirmed that this could include, if necessary, any further issues arising from the future of the Council’s stock of beach huts.

It was reported that, after considering all the sources of assurance (for governance arrangements), the BCP Corporate Management Board identified three significant governance issues namely, Governance of Children’s Social Services, Governance Arrangements with External Bodies anddelay in completion of the 2020/21 External Audit.An action plan to address these significant governance issues had been produced and was being implemented. An update against the action plan would be brought to Audit and Governance Committee in January 2023.

Overall, the AGS concluded that BCP Council “has effective and fit-for-purpose governance arrangements in place in accordance with the governance framework”.

The Committee was also referred to the ongoing process of regular review of the BCP Council Local Code of Governance and advised that, since the inception of BCP Council, regular revisions have been necessary to reflect the evolution of the Council’s governance arrangements A revised and updated version of the Code was accordingly presented and set out in the report for the Committee to note.

In response to questions arising from a member of the Committee about issues raised earlier during the public questions part of the meeting, the Monitoring Officer repeated her earlier response confirming that, in her judgement as Monitoring Officer, the matters being raised by the public questioner fell below the threshold to trigger a report under Section 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act.

RESOLVED that

(a)  the draft Annual Governance Statement 2021/22 is agreed prior to the statutory inspection period; and

(b)  the annual update of Local Code of Governance is approved.

Voting: For – 8; Against - 1; Abstain - 0