Agenda

To receive any apologies for absence from Councillors.

To receive information on any changes in the membership of the Committee.

Note – When a member of a Committee is unable to attend a meeting of a Committee or Sub-Committee, the relevant Political Group Leader (or their nominated representative) may, by notice to the Monitoring Officer (or their nominated representative) prior to the meeting, appoint a substitute member from within the same Political Group. The contact details on the front of this agenda should be used for notifications.

Councillors are requested to declare any interests on items included in this agenda. Please refer to the workflow on the preceding page for guidance.

Declarations received will be reported at the meeting.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Meeting held on 26 November 2020.

To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution. Further information on the requirements for submitting these is available to view at the following link:-

https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/documents/s2305/Public%20Items%20-%20Meeting%20Procedure%20Rules.pdf 

The deadline for the submission of public questions is Thursday 14 January 2021.

The deadline for the submission of a statement is 12.00 noon, Wednesday 20 January 2021.

The deadline for the submission of a petition was 12.00 noon, Wednesday 6 January 2021.

This report sets out the monitoring of the Council’s Treasury Management function for the period 1 April 2020 to 31 December 2020. A surplus of £159k will be achieved through lower borrowing costs due to historically low interest rates.

The Treasury Management Strategy 2021/22 is included as an appendix to this report. Key changes to the strategy have been set out in paragraphs 29-33 as well as inclusion of analysis of the approach to finance more of the capital programme through borrowing.

This report updates councillors on the position of the council’s Corporate Risk Register. The main updates are as follows are outlined in paragraph 8 of this report.

This report sets out the BCP Assurance Framework which identifies the different sources of assurance received across the Council.

The report also provides details of the proposed 2021/22 Internal Audit Plan approach.

This report details progress made on delivery of the 2020/21 Audit Plan for the period October to December (inclusive) 2020.  The report highlights that:

·       Thirteen audit assignments have been completed (with the following summary opinions - one ‘Substantial’, eleven ‘Reasonable’ and one Consultancy Review);

·       Thirty-seven audit assignments are in progress;

Implementation of audit recommendations is satisfactory.

The attached report sets out the findings of the council’s external auditor following their audit of the council’s statement of accounts 2019/2020. The key points to note are:

·       Grant Thornton anticipate providing an unqualified opinion on the financial statements for the council; and that

Grant Thornton anticipate issuing a qualified “except for” value for money conclusion due to the findings of the Ofsted targeted review of children’s services.

This report sets out the reports to be received by the Audit & Governance Committee for the 2020/21 municipal year.