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 February 2026.

To consider any outstanding actions from previous meetings.

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/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeID=151&Info=1&bcr=1

The deadline for the submission of public questions is midday on Friday 13 March 2026 [midday 3 clear working days before the meeting].

The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday on Wednesday 18 March 2026 [midday the working day before the meeting].

The deadline for the submission of a petition is Thursday 5 March 2026 [10 working days before the meeting].

The External Auditor, Grant Thornton for BCP Council, is required to consider whether the Council has put in place proper arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness its use of resources.

Auditors are required to report their commentary under specific criteria, namely financial sustainability, governance and improving economy, efficiency and effectiveness. They are required to report on any significant weaknesses they identify.

The Final 2024/25 Annual Report is attached at Appendix A, following the interim version presented to this committee on 27 November 2025. The findings are unchanged and provided for information.

Two key recommendations have been raised in relation to the cumulative DSG deficit and the statutory direction in relation to SEND.

A further four improvement recommendations have been made. The Council has provided the External Auditor with management responses to all of the recommendations.

The attached report at Appendix A sets out the work that the Council’s External Auditor, Grant Thornton, plans to undertake for the audit of the Council’s Statement of Accounts in respect of 2025/26.

The External Auditor plans to give an opinion on whether the accounts give a true and fair view and whether the Council has made proper arrangements for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources.

Section 5.4. of BCP’s Procurement & Contract Management Strategy 2024 – 2028 describes a Delivery Plan approved by the Procurement and Contracts Board with progress reported to Audit and Governance at 6-month intervals.

This report provides Audit & Governance Committee with an update on progress made in delivering the 57 commitments described within BCP’s Procurement and Contract Management Strategy 2024 - 2028.

Additionally, this report provides Audit & Governance Committee with performance monitoring indicators for the nine measures described within Section 5.5 of BCP’s Procurement & Contract Management Strategy 2024 – 2028.

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

·     CR08 – We may fail to run a fair and open election/referendum. This risk has been added during this quarter.

·     No risks have been removed or de-escalated during the quarter.

·     Material updates for this quarter are outlined in section 13.

This report sets out the Internal Audit Charter and the Audit Plan for 2026/27. Approval of these documents by the Audit & Governance Committee is a requirement of the Global Internal Audit Standards (GIAS).

Some minor amendments have been made to the Internal Audit Charter (Appendix A) which includes an updated Internal Audit Strategy and an updated Data Analytics Strategy.

The final Internal Audit Plan for 2026/27 has been produced which includes some very minor amendments from the version provided to the Audit & Governance Committee in January 2025 alongside further details on how the resource will be allocated as described in the Core Audit Plan 2026/27 (Appendix B), Provisional audits for 2026/27 (Appendix C) and the Anti-Fraud & Corruption Plan 2026/27 (Appendix E).

The proposed 2026/27 Internal Audit Plan approach has been designed to enable the Head of Internal Audit to provide an annual conclusion on the Councils’ governance, risk management and control arrangements as required by the GIAS.

The allocated budget resource for 2026/27 is considered adequate to deliver the Internal Audit Charter and Audit Plan for 2026/27.

This report details progress made on delivery of the 2025/26 Audit Plan for the first two months of the 4^th quarter (January and February 2026). Due to Committee cycle, the update for March will be included in the 2026/27 Quarter 1 report. This report highlights that:

·       17 audit assignments have been finalised, including one ‘Partial’ audit opinions;

·       25 audit assignments arein progress, including 6 at draft report stage;

·       Progress against the audit plan is on track and will be materially delivered to support the Chief Internal Auditor’s annual audit opinion;

·       Five high priority recommendations have not been fully implemented by the original target date or agreed revised date. Explanation has been received from the relevant Directors as to why these have not been completed.

The report provides additional information requested from Audit & Governance Committee regarding the financial considerations for capital borrowing to fund a two-storey extension to Two Riversmeet Leisure Centre (2RM) to address the identified need for dedicated studio space in Christchurch.  The investment aims to enhance the centres health, fitness and cultural offer, increase membership and income whilst supporting community wellbeing and aligning with the Council’s corporate strategy.

NOTE: In relation to this item of business, the Committee is asked to consider the following resolution in relation to any discussion on exempt appendix 2, 3, 5, 8, and/or 9 to the report:

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Act and that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs such interest in disclosing the information.”

To receive a verbal update.

This report sets out the indicative list of reports to be considered by the Audit & Governance Committee for the 2026/27 municipal year in order to enable it to fulfil its terms of reference.