Gosport Borough Council Standards & Audit Sub Board Meeting

There were none

There were none

Following a discussion on minute 19 paragraph 5, the sub board members asked for the line “The CIA explained that the score was based on no further decisions currently being made therefore no live risk and an exit strategy.” to be removed.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 19 September 2024 were signed as a true and correct record.

There were none

There were none

Consideration was given to a report by the Head of Finance updating members as to the status of the Gosport Borough Council Report and Accounts status for the year 2022/23. This is the year that has been impacted by the national audit backlog.

The Members were advised that the backstop date was 13^th December and there was no reason to think that the dates stated couldn’t be met.

RESOLVED: That the Sub Board noted the update given for awareness of the timescales that EY and GBC finance team are working to.

Consideration was given to a report by the Chief Internal Auditor (CIA) updating the Sub Board on the progress of the Audit Plan 2024/25.

The CIA advised that this was the standard report brought to members and showed good progress ahead of schedule with one audit added and no plans to remove any.

Members were advised that although there had been a lot of progress on the Health & Safety electrical and gas checks follow up, it had been near impossible to access every property and therefore remained open due to the nature of the task rather than nothing being done.

In answer to a Members question regarding the CCTV audit, the CIA advised that the Head of Corporate Policy and Community Safety now has oversight of all three CCTV systems to provide consistency.

In answer to a Member’s question officers advised that there was little demand for access to footage with approximately 6 requests per year.

The CIA advised that it was too early to comment on whether there was a drift upwards of High exceptions, stating that the follow ups are key. He also advised that the patterns of movement through the exceptions is considered at the start of any audit, but agreed to consider articulating these patterns in future reports.

In answer to Members’ questions, the CIA advised that the issue of staff qualifications in regard to private sector housing would be followed up in the next financial year, and that if an audit sample taken indicates failure there is a process in place which increases the test sample to determine if it is human error or systemic problems.

Officers advised that to address ongoing issues of resourcing in the Council Tax department, a plan to make use of Benefits staff to look at the immediate problem of debt collection is being introduced. A review of both areas will look at both skills and experience and how resources can be best used over the two areas. This is a model followed in other authorities, which increases resilience and protects jobs.

RESOLVED: That the Standards and Audit Sub Board noted the progress of the Audit Plan 2024/25 from 1^st April to 28^th October 2024 as set out in Appendix A

The Chairman invited the Head of IT (HOI) to brief Members on the recent outage and the subsequent actions taken to ensure more resilience in future.

The HOI gave a very detailed explanation of what had caused the outage, and Members were satisfied every avenue is being looked at to identify control measures.

Members understood that in small authorities there can be a reliance on one or two officers, and resilience must be built in so there is not a single point of failure.

The HOI explained that the move to cloud based systems increased reliability, and reduced the need for physical kit and data center.

Members wished to extend their thanks to Steve Leggatt