Issue - meetings

RECOMMENDED that Council approve the Financial Regulations as shown in Appendix A of the report to the Audit and Governance Committee.

Councillor John Beesley, Chairman of the Audit and Governance Committee presented the report on the Financial Regulations – Annual evolution for 2023/24 and outlined the recommendations as set out on the agenda.

RESOLVED that the Financial Regulations as shown in Appendix A of the report to the Audit and Governance Committee be approved.

Voting: Unanimous

Evolutionary changes to the Council’s Financial Regulations are summarised in this report and shown in red text throughout the document at Appendix A and include: 

A very minor clarification for maintained schools has been added, using waiver sign off as an example, to recognise schools have the ability to sign off certain financial matters according to their own schemes of delegation hierarchy.

References to Poole Housing Partnership managing the Poole locality side of the Housing Revenue Account have been removed.

Part G, Procurement and Contract Procedures, has been subject to layout changes to the format, numbering and ordering to more naturally follow the order of activity associated in a procurement process and to align to the ‘Government Commissioning & Procurement Playbook’.

For simplicity the whole of Part G has been shown in red text, to indicate a change from previous versions, but the actual requirements in the context of what is expected of Council staff when commissioning and procuring works, goods and services are not fundamentally different.

There are three changes to the Corporate Schedule of Financial Delegations, Appendix 1 to the Regulations. These changes include :

o   Revenue Virement delegation clarification (RV6)

o   A new expenditure delegation (EX13) for special severance payments to align with statutory guidance (May 2022)

Expansion of a previous delegation, covering only business rates, to now include Council Tax and any other tax rebate relief (TR1) where the Council must implement a fully funded government programme or scheme.

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 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

Evolutionary changes to the Council’s Financial Regulations were summarised with changes shown in red text throughout the document at Appendix A to the report. The changes included the addition of a very minor clarification for maintained schools, using waiver sign off as an example, to recognise that schools have the ability to sign off certain financial matters according to their own schemes of delegation hierarchy. References to Poole Housing Partnership managing the Poole locality side of the Housing Revenue Account had been removed.

Part G, Procurement and Contract Procedures, had been subject to layout changes to the format, numbering and ordering to more naturally follow the order of activity associated in a procurement process and to align to the ‘Government Commissioning & Procurement Playbook’.

For simplicity the whole of Part G had been shown in red text, to indicate a change from previous versions, although the actual requirements in the context of what is expected of Council staff when commissioning and procuring works, goods and services were not fundamentally different.

Three changes to the Corporate Schedule of Financial Delegations, Appendix 1 to the Regulations were reported including Revenue Virement delegation clarification (RV6) and a new expenditure delegation (EX13) for special severance payments to align with statutory guidance (May 2022).

A previous delegation, covering only business rates, had been expanded to now include Council Tax and any other tax rebate relief (TR1) where the Council must implement a fully funded government programme or scheme.

RESOLVED that Audit and Governance Committee approve the Financial Regulations as shown in Appendix A of the report to the Audit and Governance Committee before referral to Council for adoption.

Voting: Unanimous