Issue - meetings

This report summarises progress against the Internal Audit Plan 2024-2025.

The Committee received a report summarising progress against the Internal Audit Plan 2024-2025.

The following matters were considered:

a)            Part II. A Member of the Committee asked if the meeting was now in Part II. The Chair explained that the meeting was not in Part II. The Member asked if the term Part II was being used consistently and queried if there was a collective understanding of what it meant. The Chair informed the Member that they would be aware if the meeting was in Part II as the Committee would have to vote to enter Part II and the meeting would no longer be public. The Deputy Monitoring Officer and Principal Solicitor explained what Part II meant and informed the Committee that the meeting did not need to go into Part II unless there were questions pertaining to Appendix 2.

b)            Access. A Member of the Committee raised that they had been unable to access the Part II document. The Chair asked Members to raise any issues with accessing documents prior to the Committee Meeting. The Chair requested that at future meetings, a hard copy of any Part II document was accessible to Members. Democratic Services confirmed this would be the case going forward.

c)            Planning Enforcement. A Member of the Committee asked for an internal audit item on planning enforcement to be prioritised. The Chair explained that there needed to be sufficient time for management actions to be enacted before a follow up review could commence. The Internal Auditor explained that the previous review of planning enforcement concluded in February 2024, and there were 15 management actions identified. The Internal Auditor informed the Committee that all 15 management actions have now been fully implemented by Officers. The Internal Auditor explained the review is taking place during quarter 4 and will be included in the 24/25 internal audit opinion which will come to the July A&S Committee Meeting. The Internal Auditor explained that if the report and review are finalised before March, then they will be included in the March internal audit progress report.

d)            Food Safety. A Member of the Committee asked if there are any immediate management actions that are scheduled to happen to address the no assurance opinion on food safety. The Public Protection Manager explained that there are management actions in place that are fairly well advanced and will come to A&S Committee for monitoring. The Public Protection Manager informed the Committee that the service was in a much better position than it had been back in the summer. The Public Protection Manager explained that the situation developed through competition with other statutory duties that the team deals with. The Public Protection Manager directed Members to a report that went to Environment Committee in October 2024 which addressed the topic.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Note the internal audit progress report 2024-2025 from Southern Internal Audit Partnership (SIAP) attached at Appendix 1.