Agenda item

The Minutes of the last meeting of the Audit Committee held on 25^th September 2024 are attached for approval.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 23^rd September 2024 were agreed as a correct record.

Under Matters Arising, in terms of the questions from Cllrs Berry and McBriar, which were carried forward from the July Meeting, Louise Kirkman provided responses to both, advising:

CR5 – Increasing Demand Pressures and the question raised about the demand on A&E and if this was due to a lack of GP appointments across the Borough.It was acknowledged that  GPs were extremely busy, and their phone lines were be very much in demand. However, worries about people being unable to get an appointment was not the case in Bury, with the most recent GP appointment data  from July 2024 showing that 45% of appointments were provided the same day, and 72% of people got an appointment within less than a week. The number of appointments provided each month was now 94,000 per month compared to 64,000 a month only 2 years ago. Data was also shared which didn’t suggest that people were accessing A&E at Fairfield rather than using their GP, with use of A and E by Bury residents has been lower every month so far this year when compared to last year.

The other area question related to risks reflecting as being On Target, yet remaining as Static on the risk register. This often suggests that although risk management activities are proceeding as planned, they haven’t yet reduced the risk level and this could happen for a number of reasons which were outlined, and in summary On Target reflected the progress of mitigation activities relative to the planned approach, while a Static score often indicated that the risk was being contained rather than actively reduced. The goal was to reduce all risks to the target level, and all Risk Owners and Responsible Officers of the Risks present on the Corporate Risk Register were actively seeking to achieve this, ensuring regular reviews and monitoring, with effective mitigations put into place when possible.

Following discussions at the last meeting on the Statements of Accounts for 2021-22, 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, the Chair noted that there were no formal updates on the agenda, and requested that Karen Murray and Neil Kissock provide verbal updates on the latest position on each set of accounts.

Karen Murray advised that in terms of 2021-22, there was still some work outstanding relating to information on the existence of RAAC in the Council’s buildings. Information had been provided relating to buildings where the Council hadn’t yet undertaken inspections so didn’t know the position, so the financial impact of this uncertainty was not yet known. In addition,  they were yet to receive the evidence for the rest of the property portfolio to understand how the Council has determined there was no RAAC present.  

The External Auditors were also still working to understand how officers knew the related party disclosure in the accounts were complete. Some additional evidence had been presented in the last week but some of the documents were not accessible and this was being followed up. Neil Kissock advised that the information had been produced from a variety of different systems and that the information would hopefully be fully available by the end of the week.

There was no change to the position for 2022/23 and 2023/24 in that neither audit would be able to be completed in full before the respective backstop dates. Both sets of accounts would receive a “disclaimed” audit report setting out that the audit assurance had not been obtained before the respective backstop date. Neil Kissock advised that the 23-24 accounts would be submitted to the meeting on 3^rd December, including the Annual Governance Statement.

The Chair advised that a Special meeting to consider the accounts was likely to be held on 3^rd December, and Karen Murray indicated that bearing in mind the need to publish the accounts by the 13^th December deadline,  the most likely outcome was a modified audit report for 21/22 reflecting the position. The report would set out the areas where the work had been concluded and the assurance obtained and also what was outstanding.

It was agreed:

That the Minutes of the Meeting held on 23^rd September 2024 be approved as a correct record and that the Matters Arising updates be noted.