Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this Agenda.

The following declarations of interest were made in accordance with the code of conduct:

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 30 July 2018.

The minutes of the meeting held on 30 July 2018 were approved as an accurate record.

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

Under this item the Audit Completion Report was discussed.

Lisa Clampin (BDO) introduced the Audit Completion Report:

A draft report was presented at 30 July 2018 Audit and Governance Committee and this was a follow up report to give the audit certificate.

·         This report gave an unmodified opinion;

·         This report will bring to a close the Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2017/18.

Members noted the report.

Clare Cotter (Head of Health, Safety and Wellbeing Assurance) presented the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Annual Report.

The Health, Safety and Wellbeing annual report for 2017-18 was an important aspect of the health, safety and wellbeing governance arrangements for the Council. The report identified the actions that had been taken in 2017-18 to improve management arrangements for health, safety and wellbeing and what was planned in 2018-19 in the spirit of continuous improvement. As part of this it included insights into the incidents and accidents which had occurred compared to previous years.

Members raised questions relating to the following areas:

The Audit and Governance Committee noted the report.

Brenda Davis (Audit Manager) presented the Internal Audit Progress Report.

The report provided Members of the Audit and Governance Committee with a position statement on the audit work carried out since April 2018 and based on work performed to date during 2018/19, Internal Audit was able to provide reasonable assurance on the adequacy and effectiveness of the Authority’s internal

control environment.

The Audit and Governance Committee noted the report.

Brenda Davis (Audit Manager) presented the Internal Audit Follow Up Report.

At the Audit and Governance Committee on 31 May 2018 members were presented with the 2017/18 Internal Audit Annual report which provided a summary of the work undertaken by Devon Audit Partnership during 2017/18 along with an audit opinion on the adequacy of internal control.

The aim of the report was to provide assurance to Members of the Audit and Governance Committee that where an audit has been undertaken and an opinion of ‘Improvements Required’ or less has been provided, Devon Audit Partnership had undertaken follow up audit reviews, wherever possible, or discussed progress with relevant officers. The results from this process were contained in the report. It should be noted that an opinion of ‘Fundamental Weaknesses Identified’ was not given for any of the audits undertaken in 2017/18.

The Audit and Governance Committee noted the report.

This item was not discussed and would be scheduled to be discussed at a future meeting.

David Bray (Grant Thornton) presented the Fee Letter for 2018/19.

Members were advised that Grant Thornton would be the Council’s auditors from 1 April 2018; the letter set out the theme for the work to be carried out.

The Audit and Governance noted the Fee Letter for 2018/19.

David Bray (Grant Thornton) presented the Housing Benefits fee quote for 2018/19.

Members were advised that the housing benefits audit was normally in the core audit work however was split out for 18/19; one group of auditors would do both audits and the fee was historically set.

The Audit and Governance Committee noted the Housing Benefits Fee quote for 2018/19.

Councillor Haydon (Cabinet Member for Customer Focus & Community Safety) introduced the report.

Members were advised that every year the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) sends each council an annual review letter which outlines the Ombudsman’s position in relation to complaints monitoring. The publication of the 2017/8 annual report provided an opportunity to review and discuss complaints that had been received about Plymouth during the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018. After investigation, the LGSCO upheld only fifteen complaints of the one hundred and twenty one (12.4%) complaints they made decisions about in relation to Plymouth City Council. This was an improvement on the rate upheld for 2016/17 which was 14.7%.

Members agreed to:

Julie Hosking (Corporate Risk Advisor) presented the Strategic Risk Register.

Members were advised that the report provided a summary of the latest formal monitoring exercise completed for the Strategic Risk and Opportunity Register for the period March 2018 to August 2018.

The Audit and Governance Committee noted and endorsed the current position with regard to the Strategic Risk and Opportunity Register.

Glenda Favor-Ankersen (Head of Electoral Services) and Emmanuelle Marshal (Project Manager) presented the Polling District Review.

Members were advised that the Council was statutorily required to undertake a review every five year of the polling district. The last review for Plymouth City was conducted in November 2014 and so the next compulsory review must be undertaken and completed between 1 October 2018 and 31 January 2020; the review would be started on 5 November 2018.

Members endorsed the approach proposed.

Siân Millard (Oversight & Governance Manager) presented the Councillor Long Service Award.

There was currently a long-service award for officers, but not for Councillors. Officers are employees of the Council and Councillors are elected Members of Council with a democratic mandate from the local electorate.

Councillors’ long-service was currently recognised on retirement from office, or as a former Lord Mayor, by being awarded the title of Honorary Alderman.

A long-service award would recognise the service of Councillors still engaged as an elected Member.

This was proposed to recognise the significant contribution of those Councillors during their period of office.

The Audit and Governance Committee agreed to note the proposed criteria within the report and proposed recognition and to recommend implementation of these proposals to the Leader in consultation with the Shadow Leader.

Linda Torney (Assistant Head of Legal Services) presented the Delegation of functions to Audit & Governance Committee.

The purpose of this report was to recommend that Council authorise the Audit and Governance Committee to approve changes to the Constitution, subject to Council retaining responsibility for those functions set out in Appendix One to the report.

This would improve the efficiency of the decision making process, and maintain open and transparent decision making.

The Audit and Governance Committee agreed to recommend that Council authorises the Audit and Governance Committee to approve changes to the Constitution, set out in Appendix One to the report; subject to Council retaining responsibility for the core documents in the Constitution.

Members noted the report.

Members were invited to email the Chair with any items they would like included on the Work Programme.

To consider passing a resolution under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the press and the public from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 of Part 1 of the Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  At the time this agenda is published no representations have been made that this part of the meeting should be in public.

(Members of the public to note that, if agreed, you will be asked to leave the meeting).

Agreed that under Section 100(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that the involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1 of Part I Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

John Finch (Information Governance Manager) presented the Information Governance Report to the Audit and Governance Committee.

Members noted the report.