Issue - meetings

This report provides the Audit & Scrutiny Committee with the Internal Audit Charter 2025/26 and the Internal Audit Plan for 2025/26 (Q1/2).

The Committee received a report providing the Internal Audit Charter 2025/26 and the Internal Audit Plan for 2025/26 (Q1/2).

The following matters were considered:

a)            Internal Auditors. A Member of the Committee made a comment that the Council’s Internal Auditors were not employees of the Council and were therefore more akin to External Auditors. The Member also stated that they did not believe the Internal or External Auditors offer good value for money. The Chair noted the comments. The Director of Corporate Services (S151) pointed out that whether the Chief Internal Auditor was an employee of this Council or not, they would report to the S151 Officer in the same way that occurs currently.  The Director of Corporate Services (S151) took issue with the Member’s assessment that SIAP do not provide good value for money and stated that the experience that the Internal Auditors bring is far beyond what we would be able to afford internally, in terms of the range of personnel and experience they provide. The Chief Internal Auditor informed the Committee that the Internal Audit function continues to remain independent, as it would if it was in house or external.

b)            Internal Audit Plan. A Member of the Committee raised that they are concerned about the use of waivers and would like to see an internal audit plan item around the use of waivers. The Chair noted the comments and stated that it could be considered in discussions with the Internal Auditors and SLT.

c)            High Risk. The Vice Chair asked the Internal Auditor if Members should be concerned that all the risk assessments on page 193 are listed as high. The Chief Internal Auditor explained that the internal audit risk assessment is the internal auditors’ view on the priority being put on those reviews. She explained that the fact that this is the first six months of the plan, only high or medium priority areas would be considered. The Internal Auditors would not look at the low priority areas because resource is limited. They are not labelled as high because there’s an area of concern, but because of their priority rating.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Approve the Internal Audit Charter 2025/26 as set out in Appendix 1.

(2)      To provide input to and approve the Internal Audit Plan 2025/26 (Q1/2) as set out in Appendix 2.