Agenda

To take any questions or statements from members of the Public.

To receive declarations of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or other registrable or non-registrable interests from Members in respect of any item to be considered at the meeting.

The Committee is asked to confirm as a true record the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on the 5 February 2026 (attached) and to authorise the Chair to sign them.

This report provides the Committee with an overview of the procurement Waivers between January 2025 and December 2025. In the year there were a total of fourteen waivers, with a cumulative spend of £479,121.

This report details Stage 1 and Stage 2 complaints received by the Council from 01 April 2025 to 31 December 2025.

The appendix to this report provides an overview of the council’s performance with respect to its ongoing annual plan actions from 2024-25, key performance indicators, corporate risks, committee risks, and annual governance statement actions.

This report provides Audit & Scrutiny Committee with an update on the work undertaken by Financial Strategy Advisory Group with respect to the Council’s Treasury Management activity over the past 12 months.

This report presents the External Audit Plan for 2025/26.

This report presents the Annual Report of the Audit and Scrutiny Committee 2025-2026 in accordance with the requirement of Paragraph 7.2 of Annex 4.6 of the Council’s Operating Framework. It covers the work of the Committee between March 2025 and February 2026, and following agreement by the Committee, will be submitted to the next available agenda for Full Council.

As required by the Global Internal Audit Standards in UK Public Sector this report presents the Internal Audit Charter and the Internal Audit Plan 2026-27. The Internal Audit Charter (Appendix 1) is a formal document that includes the internal audit function’s mandate, organisational position, reporting relationships, scope of work, types of service, and other specifications. The Internal Audit Plan (Appendix 2) is a document, developed by the Chief Internal Auditor, that identifies the engagements and other internal audit services anticipated to be provided during a given period.

The purpose of this paper is to provide the Audit and Scrutiny Committee with the outcome from the External Quality Assessment of the Southern Internal Audit Partnership against the new Global Internal Audit Standards in the UK Public Sector.

As required by the Global Internal Audit Standards in UK Public Sector this report presents the Internal Audit Progress Report 2025-26 (February 2026). The report provides the Audit and Scrutiny Committee with an overview of internal audit activity and assurance work completed in accordance with the approved audit plan and provides an overview of key updates relevant to the discharge of the committee’s role in relation to internal audit.

The Committee is asked to consider whether it wishes to pass a resolution to exclude the Press and Public from the meeting in accordance with Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that the business involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act (as amended) and that pursuant to paragraph 10 of Part 2 of the said Schedule 12A the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

This report presents the Committee with its rolling annual Work Programme.