(a)

the Strategic Risk Register was held at the executive level with the corporate management team, with the Operational Risk Register beneath that; these reports were submitted to the Audit and Governance Committee however it was considered that they should also be submitted to the scrutiny committees so that there was an awareness of the risks and big issues facing the Council;

(b)

there were 23 risks currently being managed on the Strategic Risk Register, 8 of which were rated as red. The report was submitted to Committee to aid Members in considering priorities for their work programme moving forward;

(c)

the current Strategic Red Risks included Council expenditure exceeding resources, pension fund accounting, demanding complexity of children’s services and  financial sustainability of CaterEd (both on the work programme for the Education and Children’s Social Care OSP), cyber security (to form part of the Performance, Finance and Customer Focus OSP work programme), IT supply chain constraints, adult social care workforce constraints, sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) approval body;

(d)

there was a new risk on the Strategic Risk Register, rated as amber and concerned the capacity within the senior leadership team. There were a number of interims in place;

(e)

there were currently 119 risks on the Operational Risk Register; there was a reduction of 11 risks on the current register; the removal of those was because they were no longer relevant or duplicated in some way;

(f)

There were 7 red risks on the Operational Risk Register – only red risks were reported to the Audit and Governance Committee and to scrutiny. They included childrens services, the safety of some older trees in the city, asbestos management in some of the Council’s buildings, data security recruitment, home working and the school transport budget;

(g)

Members were encouraged to consider including pre-decision scrutiny of the Council’s IT procurement to their work programme for the forthcoming municipal year.

(h)

the IT contract with Delt was due to expire in October 2024; due to the complexity of the contract it was suggested that scrutiny on this matter might take approximately 9 months giving Councillors opportunity to get involved;

(i)

the Audit and Governance Committee had the responsibility for monitoring the pension fund liability accounting issue. At that meeting scheduled for 25 July 2023, the Audit and Governance Committee discussed this issue. It was highlighted that the Members were unable to sign off the Council’s account for 2019/20 as there was one outstanding issue that related to the pension and the way in which the Council undertook a transaction relating to it. Every year there was a deficit that existed on a pension. The Council took a decision to pay the deficit off for the next 20 years thereby not incurring a substantial cost every year and taking it off the revenue budget an putting it onto the capital budget. A sum payment of £72m was made 3 years ago to do that. There was a question from the auditors perspective regarding the accounting and if it was capital or revenue. Despite prolonged, detailed, complex and costly discussions by the Council, legal advisors, and auditors, an agreement had yet to be reached. There was no ‘black hole’ and the action taken had saved the council between £2 – 3m every year.

1.

to add IT contract procurement to the Committee’s work programme with regular updates provided throughout the municipal year;

2.

to note the current position with regard to the Strategic and Operational Risk Registers.