Agenda item

The Committee received the Internal Audit Progress Report from the Head of Worcestershire Internal Audit Shared Service. The report before the Committee summarised progress made against the delivery of the Internal Audit Plan 2022/23 as of end of December 2022. It was noted that Appendix 2 provided a complete overview of the plan and a holistic view of the progress against the plan.

The Head of Worcestershire Internal Audit Shared Service reported that two data sets were to be uploaded to central database as part of the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) matching exercise in January 2023, concerning Council Tax Single Person Discount and Electoral Registration. It was noted there were no exceptions to report in terms of fraud or other serious risk.

The Head of Worcestershire Internal Audit Shared Service reported that the main internal audit report before the Committee concerned monitoring of the Council’s fleet and plant fuel usage and efficiency and other internal audit reports were now nearing completion. Three follow-up reports had also been submitted following the Committee’s request for follow-up internal audit reviews in these areas.

Officers provided an update on the assurance status of items on the internal audit follow up programme and reported that Council fleet fuel usage remained the only area of moderate internal assurance.

Following the update, Members expressed concern about the summary of delivery against the internal audit plan as it was noted that only 98 days of audit had been delivered against the annual target of 230 days (as at 31^st December 2022) and that the current target for this financial year was therefore impossible to fulfil. Officers explained that depending on investigations and in-depth reviews and audits that had to be undertaken the annual target was subject to change in days, and that of much more importance to the effectiveness of internal audit function was the coverage of internal audit across all areas of council business and not the actual budgeted days spent. It was also explained that ‘day’ targets were also indicative and there was a variation allowed to account for different priorities year-on-year.

Members sought assurance that all Council vehicles were appropriately taxed and had an up-to-date MOT. Officers assured Members that this was the case and also noted that the appropriate head of service would be approached to provide a full response to Members on this matter. It was also reported that the issue of accounting for all key fobs for council vehicles would also be raised with the appropriate head of service.

It was reported that it was likely that cyber security insurance would not be available to local authorities after the end of this financial year due as insurers were withdrawing this option due to high risk. Bromsgrove Council was covered by cyber security insurance until June 2024. This was a great risk to local authorities, especially with a number of councils recently hit by cyber security attacks. It was therefore imperative that the Local Government Association (LGA) was lobbied on this matter to ensure that a ‘self-insurance’ option was available in the sector in the absence of private insurance provision.

Officers noted that District Councils would not normally offer support to Parish Councils on cyber security as these were separate entities operating on different types of IT systems and with different requirements.

Members requested that information about the current cost of the Council’s cyber security insurance be provided at the next meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.