Agenda item

2.10 p.m.

Report by the Director of Finance.

In accordance with The Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA) Audit Committee Guidelines for Local Authorities 2018, it is recommended practice for an annual public report to be produced and reported to Council demonstrating how the Committee has discharged its responsibilities.

The Audit & Governance Committee is RECOMMENDED to review the draft report, agree any amendments, and finalise in preparation for presentation to Council by the Chair of the Audit & Governance Committee.

The Audit & Governance Committee considered a report by the Director of Finance. In accordance with The Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA) Audit Committee Guidelines for Local Authorities 2018, it was recommended practice for an annual public report to be produced and reported to Full Council demonstrating how the Committee had discharged its responsibilities.

It was recommended that the Audit & Governance Committee review the draft report, agree any amendments, and finalise the report in preparation for a presentation to Council by the Chair of the Audit & Governance Committee.

Sarah Cox, Chief Internal Auditor, Oxfordshire County Council, presented the report.

In the subsequent discussion, the following points were raised.

(a)  Regarding the final Paragraph on Page 30 of the report, which stated –

“Where any other member wishes to inspect any document considered by the Group and believes that s/he has a ‘need to know’ as a County Councillor, the procedure in the Council's Constitution relating to Members’ Rights and Responsibilities (Part 9.3) shall apply.”,

the Director of Law and Governance confirmed that Councillors did not have an unfettered right to access information held by the Council and it may be necessary for a Councillor to demonstrate a “need to know” before they may be granted access to certain types or categories of information.

(b)  In response to a query raised by Councillor Roberts regarding the attendance of the external auditors, Ernst and Young (EY) on Page 23 of the report, it was noted that it had been expected that EY representatives would attend this meeting of the Committee. However, an administrative oversight in the preparation of the agenda had necessitated deferring EY’s attendance to the next meeting of the Committee.

(c)   Regarding Paragraph 39 on Page 27 of the report where it stated –

“To grant dispensations to councillors and co-opted members from the requirements relating to interests set out in the code of conduct for members”,

the Director of Law and Governance noted that dispensations were rare notwithstanding it had been anticipated with the introduction of the Localism Act 2011 that dispensations might become more commonplace. She then noted the implications of granting dispensations before outlining the difficulties of granting dispensations in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 12A of the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 and how this worked in practice.

(d)  Regarding Paragraph 40 of the report which stated –

“To receive a report from Member-Officer Standards Panels appointed to investigate allegations of misconduct under the Member’s “Code of Conduct”,

the Director of Law and Governance stated that, in her capacity as Monitoring Officer, her role would be limited and would not necessarily form part of the formal review process. However, she would be willing to consider how her involvement in the process might be made more transparent while restricting sensitive information entering the public domain.

At this stage, the Chair drew the discussion to a close and proposed that the recommendation in the report be amended to read, as follows –

“The Audit & Governance Committee is RECOMMENDED to delegate the final report text to the Chief Internal Auditor in consultation with the Chair of the Audit & Governance Committee before presenting the report to Full Council.”

AGREED