Meeting documents

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 27^th July 2017.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 27^th July 2017, copies of which has been circulated, were approved as a correct record and were signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Anna Groskop and David Norris.

In accordance with the Council's current Code of Conduct (as amended 26 February 2015), which includes all the provisions relating to Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI), personal and prejudicial interests, Members are asked to declare any DPI and also any personal interests (and whether or not such personal interests are also "prejudicial") in relation to any matter on the agenda for this meeting. 

There were no declarations of interest made.

There were no members of the public present during the meeting.

Councillors are requested to note that the next Audit Committee meeting is scheduled to be held at 10.00am on Thursday 26^th October in the Main Committee Room, Brympton Way, Yeovil.

Members noted that the date of the next meeting of the Audit Committee was scheduled for 10.00am on Thursday 26^th October in the Main Committee Room, Brympton Way, Yeovil.

The Director of Quality, SWAP, advised that he would be attending Audit Committee meetings in the future as Moya Moore was now focusing on marketing for SWAP. 

The Senior Auditor advised that a Healthy Organisation report had been completed the previous year and some implementation dates had yet to be agreed. She outlined the audits which were currently being undertaken and confirmed that she was content with their progress. 

The Director of Quality, SWAP, advised that as the Council was going through Transformation it was difficult to progress some audits and therefore some had been reviewed.  There were 95 audit days remaining and so SWAP had offered to use some of the days to advise the Transformation process as it was the biggest risk to the authority.  The joint audit of elections with East Devon District Council would go ahead, but the Data Protection audit around contracts was paused as the processes would be re-engineered through the Transformation programme. 

During discussion, Members expressed concern at the partial assurance given to Data Protection as they felt this could be a substantial risk to the Authority.  The Director of Quality, SWAP, advised that the main issues were the terms and signing of contracts and not data access issues.  He advised that a report would be presented to the next Audit Committee to clarify these issues. 

It was noted that staff were regularly tested to ensure they did not open phishing scam emails and subject the Council to ransom or security issues.

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were reminded of the two SWAP training events being held on 18^th and 24^th October where there would be training sessions on cyber security. 

RESOLVED:  that members noted the Quarter 1 & 2 Internal Audit Plan 2017/18 Progressreport.

The Civil Contingencies Manager advised that a recent audit report had given reasonable assurance of the health and safety procedures of the Council.  It was hoped to procure a new Health and Safety IT system to monitor performance and a traffic light measure of red, amber, green would be adopted in this new system.  Accident levels within the Streetscene service had reduced dramatically and a workflow diagram to help employees working on the highway had been produced.  It was important that Health and Safety measures were in place ahead of the locality working in Transformation and so employees were trialling ‘Skyguard’ when lone working as a tracking and security system for them.  Spot-Gem satellite tracking was also being used by the Countryside and Streetscene teams. 

The Civil Contingencies Manager agreed to share the workflow diagram to help people working on the highway with Town and Parish Councils as it was noted that they often carried out community litter picks on the highway. 

At the conclusion of a short debate, Members were pleased to note the health, safety and welfare annual report as presented. 

RESOLVED:  that the Audit Committee noted the Health, Safety and Welfare Annual report.

The following amendments and additions to the Audit Forward Plan were noted:-

·         Annual Audit Letter – moved forward to October 2017

·         Data Protection follow up report – October 2017

·         Treasury Management – First Quarter report (due in October) to be merged with Second Quarter report and presented together in November 2017

RESOLVED:  that the updated Audit Committee Forward Plan be noted.