Meeting documents

Apologies for absence were received from

·         Cllr Tim Kerley

·         Cllr Mike Lewis (substituted by Cllr Steve Ashton)

(the apologies were due to a meeting clash with South Somerset District Council Audit committee) 

Details of all Members’ interests in District, Town and Parish Councils can be viewed on the Council Website at

County Councillors membership of Town, City, Parish or District Councils and this will be displayed in the meeting room (Where relevant).

The Statutory Register of Member’s Interests can be inspected via request to the Democratic Service Team.

Cllr Mike Caswell informed the committee that he is a recipient of a local government pension fund.

The Committee is asked to confirm the minutes are accurate.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 28^th July 2022 were approved subject to two corrections being made to officer names and job titles. In addition, members asked the clerk to ensure that the minutes of the meeting, particularly member questions and the responses received, were detailed consistently  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

The Chairman will allow members of the public to present a petition on any matter within the Committee’s remit. Questions or statements about any matter on the agenda for this meeting will be taken at the time when each matter is considered.

There were no members of the public registered to speak. The Chair advised that a late question had been received from a member of the public, and that a full written response would be sent.

To consider the future work plan

Jason Vaughan (Head of Governance and Finance and S151 Officer) presented the current work programme and invited questions and comments from all members of the committee.

After a brief discussion between members and officers it was agreed that the ‘Informing the audit assessment’ reports from Grant Thornton LLP would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To consider this report

Barrie Morris (Director Grant Thornton LLP) introduced the external audit progress update report and advised that the audit had made a strong start with lots of evidence being returned promptly. Unfortunately, over the past couple of weeks there had been some challenges with maintaining that momentum, particularly evidence concerning valuation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To consider this report

Julie Masci (Director Audit Grant Thornton LLP) introduced the Audit findings report for the Somerset Pension Fund. She advised that the audit had gone very well with work substantially complete and expressed her appreciation and thanks to all involved in pulling the audit together. In terms of overall conclusions, she  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To consider this report

Alastair Woodland, Head of Audit at SWAP Internal Audit Services provided members with the regular progress update, highlighting the following key points from the report-

·         Page 60 – Overview of Audit plan since July, note that there is one ltd assurance opinion to bring to your attention. 

·         Page 62 –  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To note the risks of the LGR programme register?

Angela Farmer (Local Government Reorganisation Risk Manager) gave an update on the Local Government Reorganisation Risk register with a series of slides. She explained the levels of risk for the programme; strategic level, and programme level and that reviewing and monitoring LGR risks is achieved by:

·         Weekly meeting with programme  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Chairman may raise any items of urgent business.

There were no other urgent items of business raised by the Chair.