Agenda item

Risk Management Group Monitoring Update

Meeting of Audit, Standards and Governance Committee, Thursday 16th June 2016 6.00 p.m. (Item 13/16)

Minutes:

The Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources presented the draft Corporate Risk Register for 2016/17 and the draft Annual Governance Statement for 2015/16. Whilst presenting these documents the following points were highlighted for Members’ consideration:

· A red, amber and green (RAG) rating system was used to assess each risk and the extent to which proposed mitigation would help to reduce that risk.

· Officers were aiming to ensure that the Corporate Risk Register would be a working document and items could be added or removed from this document in response to changing circumstances.

· The register focused on corporate risks. Departmental risks were recorded on a service by service basis and were the focus of the Committee’s Risk Champion.

· The risk recorded in respect of non-compliance with health and safety legislation had previously focused only on the potential for a fatality in service. This had been updated to take into account other issues such as injuries at work.

· The risk arising from poor decisions being made quickly in order to achieve savings was also considered. In future managers would be provided with direct access to figures for budgets in their remits rather than having to rely on monthly update reports.

· The risk of financial constraints arising due to external factors was difficult to influence. Ideally financial data needed to be reported as quickly as possible for Members’ consideration.

· There was a further risk that partners would fail to deliver on joint working commitments due to budget constraints.

· Members were advised that the reference in the register to combined authorities would be removed following recent discussions at Council.

· In the long-term it was hoped that the reference to the business continuity plans could be removed from the register, though there remained a lot of work to do to address this issue.

· Financial accounting and monitoring arrangements had been included as a corporate rather than a departmental risk due to the implications arising from the Section 11 recommendations.

At the end of the presentation Members noted that it was important to avoid treating risks as business as usual and there needed to be constructive action to address these risks. The Committee proceeded to propose the following points in respect of the Corporate Risk Register:

· The date by which proposed mitigation action was due to be completed for each of the risks should be noted on the register.

· The mitigations recorded for the IT systems and infrastructure should be reviewed. Members commented that the proposed review of business continuity procedures was not an action that would necessarily resolve any problems with those systems.

· Similarly Members suggested that the actions listed in respect of financial accounting would not necessarily act to mitigate that risk. For that reason Members requested that the mitigations listed for this risk be reviewed.

· The Committee noted that the proposed mitigations were all designed to prevent the risk from happening. Members suggested that actions to minimise the impact of that risk if it became reality should also be recorded amongst the mitigations.

RESOLVED that

(1) Subject to including the points detailed in the preamble above in future editions of the register, the contents of the draft Corporate Risk Register be noted; and

(2) The updates on the Annual Governance Statement be noted.

Supporting documents: