Agenda item

Louise Kirkman presented a report which provided an updated position with regards to the risks identified and assessed on the Council’s Corporate Risk Register.

24 risks were currently present on the Corporate Risk Register and had been identified as those that had the potential to disrupt the Council’s strategic objectives and service delivery. These risks had been identified as those of a genuine corporate nature and were summarised as follows:

 16 risks were currently rated as Significant (risk score 15-25)

 8 risks were currently rated as High (risk score 8-12)

 1 risk had increased in score o

 0 had decreased in score

 20 have remained static

 2 had been newly introduced

 1 was proposed for closure

One risk was proposed for closure, being CR32 - General Election  which had been completed since the last review so was no longer relevant.

One risk reflected an increased likelihood: CR30 – Staff Safety. The Risk Owner had advised that there was an increasing trend in incidents of violence and aggression against staff. This is a pattern was not unique to Bury. Given the trend in the data it felt appropriate that the risk likelihood score was increased.

Two new risks had been introduced, the first was CR34 and related to the Sure Maintenance Contract, the service had declined significantly in recent months. Housing had placed the contractor under an improvement plan, as data was showing that customer service was in decline and the number of properties without appointments for servicing had increased substantially. This would put therefore put them at risk of not meeting their statutory duties. It was also reported however that improvements had been noticed very recently following changes introduced by the company.

The second new risk was CR35 and related to Insurance Cover across the Council. Following a tender exercise last year, it was found that there were a substantial number of properties held that had an inadequate valuation or unavailable information, resulting in the tender process being withdrawn and delayed until this year. Insurance cover may be inadequate and we may be over or under insuring based on the current valuations. Over the summer, some insurance cover relating to the Bradley Fold Trading Estate had been withdrawn and so with this and the tender exercise, it was felt that this could be a risk posed to the Council if adequate property valuations were not provided. The Insurance Team had a working group in place to address the issues and ensure that relevant mitigating controls were in place to reduce the risk and ensure that the tender process ran smoothly. An inherent risk score field has been added to the Risk Register at this review, which demonstrated the level of risk that existed before any controls or mitigations were applied.

Members discussed the additional risks and report submitted, with Louise Kirkman advising that she would arrange an answer to Cllr Berry’s query about School Streets (how many and how may scheduled over the next 12 months) for submission to Democratic Services and later minuting at the next meeting.

In terms of CR35 – the Chair enquired whether the Insurance issues were related to the Asset Register, with Neil Kissock and Janet Spelzini advising that all necessary values were not all yet known and that this matter was being looked into.

Members discussed a future Deep Dive item, and it was noted that the February meeting would consider CR 19 – Financial Capacity and that a Deep Dive item would not be part of the agenda for the Special Meeting in December.

Karen Murray reminded the Committee that a Deep Dive exercise was not always necessary if the Committee were satisfied that risks were being managed.

Louise Kirkman offered to deliver training on the Risk Matrix at a future point, which was noted by the Committee.

It was agreed:

That Members:

1.Note this report;

2. Receive the Corporate Risk Register at Appendix A;

3. Note the Risk Matrix presented at Appendix B;

4. Note the information presented;

5. Note the Deep Dive Report at Appendix C;

6. Confirm that the level of assurance provided against the risks is sufficient;

7. Approve the proposal that the deep dive of CR19 – Financial Capacity is provided at the February meeting of the Audit Committee;

8. Approve the closure of CR32 – General Election, and

9. Note receive that a “Deep Dive” review will not be presented at the next meeting of the Audit Committee (see 7).