Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1 - Epsom Town Hall. View directions

Contact: Tim Richardson, 01372 732122  Email: trichardson@epsom-ewell.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

17.

Question Time

To take any questions from members of the Public.

Please note: Members of the Public are requested to inform the Democratic Services Officer before the meeting begins if they wish to ask a verbal question to the Committee.

Minutes:

No questions were asked or had been submitted by members of the Public.

18.

Declarations of Interest

Members are asked to declare the existence and nature of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests in respect of any item of business to be considered at the meeting.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were made by Councillors in items on the agenda for this meeting.

19.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 84 KB

The Committee is asked to confirm as a true record the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 11 October 2016 (attached) and to authorise the Chairman to sign them.


Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting of the Audit, Crime & Disorder and Scrutiny Committee held on 11 October 2016 were agreed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

20.

Epsom & Ewell Community Safety Partnership half year report 2016/17 pdf icon PDF 101 KB

This report informs the Committee of the work and position of the Epsom and Ewell Community Safety Partnership (CSP) for the first half of 2016/17.

Minutes:

The Committee received and noted a report on the work and likely future structure of the Epsom and Ewell Community Safety Partnership (CSP).

The following matters were considered:

a)            Amalgamation with East Surrey Community Safety Partnership (ESCSP). A proposal to amalgamate the CSP with the ESCSP had been approved by the Environment Committee on 25 October 2016. The Audit, Crime & Disorder and Scrutiny Committee was informed that the Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner would now be requested to confirm the amalgamation. It was hoped that this would be completed before Christmas.

b)            Joint Action Group (JAG) and Community Incident Action Group (CIAG) continuation. The Committee was informed that JAG and CIAG arrangements would remain as they currently were following the amalgamation with ESCSP detailed above.

c)            Further information regarding the work of the JAG and CIAG. Following a request from a member of the Committee for further information on the work undertaken by the JAG and CIAG, the Committee was informed that due to the sensitive nature of information considered by those groups, this was not always possible.

It was noted that the Scrutiny Officer would work with the Community Safety & Projects Officer to ensure that the Committee was provided with sufficient and appropriate information on the work of the CSP, to enable it to undertake its crime and disorder scrutiny role whilst also ensuring that confidentially and data protection requirements were met.

21.

Internal Audit - Monitoring Report pdf icon PDF 106 KB

This report summarises progress against the audit plan for 2016/17.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report summarising progress against the audit plan for 2016/17.

The following matters were considered:

a)            Audit Assignment: cash handling. The Committee was informed that the Auditor did not have any significant concerns regarding cash handling procedures at the Council, following the actions undertaken to rectify issues identified by a previous review.

b)            Scheduling of audit assignments. The Internal Auditor informed the Committee that she was confident that all the scheduled reviews would be completed within the agreed timeframe. It was noted that it was common for the majority of financial audits to be scheduled for the second half of each year, to ensure that a sufficient number of transactions had been completed prior to inspection.

c)            Updates on advisory reviews of Facilities Management and Workforce Planning. The Committee requested that an update on the implementation of recommendations from the advisory reviews on Facilities Management and Workforce Planning be presented to a future meeting. It was noted that this would be included within a future monitoring report.

d)            Facilities Management – medium term maintenance Plan. The Committee was informed that the Council’s Head of Property was considering the maintenance requirements of the Council’s properties, and that a report providing a maintenance plan for 2017/18 would be presented to the Financial Policy Panel. The Director of Finance and Resources also informed the Committee that it was intended to produce a 5-10 year maintenance plan for the Council’s properties.

 

22.

Progress on the implementation of internal audit recommendations pdf icon PDF 95 KB

This report outlines progress made on implementing internal audit recommendations to strengthen the control environment.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report outlining progress made on implementing internal audit recommendations from the 2014/15 and 2015/16 audit programmes.

The following matters were considered:

a)            Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. The Committee was informed that it was intended to review the Council’s approach to ‘customer experience’, and that a workshop would be held with Councillors later in November 2016 to assist in enabling this. The Committee was informed that alternatives to a CRM based system would also be considered.

b)            Internal Auditor’s comments. The internal Auditor informed the Committee that they did not have any concerns with regard to the contents of the report.

23.

Risk Management Framework Annual Report pdf icon PDF 102 KB

This report enables the Committee to meet its responsibilities for monitoring the development of the Council’s risk management arrangements.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report providing an updated Risk Management Strategy 2017-2021.

The following matter was considered:

a)            Business continuity plan - recent telephone service interruption. The Committee was informed that the Council maintained business continuity plans for use in the event of significant interruptions to its services. The Committee noted that during the recent interruption to the Council’s telephone service, the continuity plan had been followed to route services via Elmbridge Borough Council. Following the incident, the Council’s response to the problem had been reviewed by the Leadership Team.

Following consideration, the Committee:

(1)          Agreed the updated Risk Management Strategy 2017-2021 attached at Annexe 1 to the report.

(2)          Confirmed that it was satisfied with the arrangements in place.

(3)          Reviewed the Leadership Risk Register and did not identify any matters which it wished to raise to the attention of the Council’s Leadership Team.

24.

Annual Governance Statement and External Auditor's Audit Findings 2015/16 - Progress against action plans pdf icon PDF 100 KB

This report sets out progress on the actions contained in the Council’s Annual Governance Statement and in the Annual Audit Findings issued by the External Auditor following audit of the Financial Statements.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received and noted a report providing an update on progress in the implementation of action plans contained within the Annual Governance Statement and the Audit Findings within the External Auditor’s report.

25.

External Audit Progress Report August 2016 pdf icon PDF 84 KB

This report provides an update of work being carried out by the Council’s External Auditor and identifies emerging issues for the Committee to note.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received and noted the External Audit Progress Report.

26.

Audit Findings Report 2015/16 pdf icon PDF 69 KB

This report covers Grant Thornton’s audit findings following audit of the Financial Statements for 2015/16.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report setting out the findings of the External Auditor’s audit of the Financial Statements for 2015/16. It was noted that these had been agreed by the Strategy and Resources Committee at its meeting on 27 September 2016.

The following matter was considered:

a)            Amber assessment of Academy system listing of NDR prepayments. The Director of Finance and Resources informed the Committee that the issues identified by the auditor with regard to the Academy system (unable to provide a listing of all NDR prepayments) would be looked into by Officers.

 

27.

Corporate Plan: Performance Report One 2016 to 2017 pdf icon PDF 105 KB

This report provides an update against our Key Priority Performance Targets that are either on amber or red for 2016 to 2017, under our new Corporate Plan.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report providing an update on progress against Key Performance Targets.

The following matters were considered:

a)            Targets reliant on external agencies/influences. The Committee noted that it was intended not to set targets which were outside of the Council’s control due to their reliance on external agencies or influences. If such a target was set and not achieved due to factors outside the Council’s control, these would be detailed in the performance reporting, rather than the target being changed mid-year.

b)            ‘Not Achieved’ status of Round the Borough Hike. The Committee noted that the target of 70 participants for the Round the Borough Hike had not been achieved, largely due to poor weather on the day of the event. However, a large number of residents had registered to take part (124). The Committee suggested that in future years, the target for such an event should be the number of registrations, not participants, to avoid factors outside the Council’s control (such as poor weather conditions) affecting its achievement.

c)            Enforcement action against flytipping. It was noted that Croydon Council had recently taken enforcement action against vehicles which had been used for flytipping. The vehicles had been crushed. It was requested that the possibility of a similar scheme this being introduced in Epsom and Ewell be considered by Officers.

Following consideration, the Committee:

(1)          Did not identify any areas of concern on the amber or red actions reported in Annexe 1 to the report.

(2)          Noted the actions that had been proposed or taken as detailed in table 3.1 of the report.

(3)          Noted the overview of Key Priority Performance Targets in Annexe 2 to the report.

28.

Work Programme 2016/17 pdf icon PDF 91 KB

This report updates the Committee on its work programme 2016/17 and highlights that a verbal update on its initial report on the Venues Review will be provided at the meeting.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received and noted a report updating it on its work programme for 2016/17 and a verbal update on the Community and Wellbeing Committee’s consideration of the Scrutiny Review of venues.