Agenda item

To receive any announcements from the Chairman.

·       Accounts and Audit briefing note to all Members.

·       Stone Circle Scrutiny.

·       Independent Members on Audit & Governance.

The Chairman made the following announcements:

• An Update on the 2019/20 Accounts and Audit Process

The Chairman outlined that the External Auditor was not currently in a position to finalise their opinion on the 2019/20 Accounts and any additional related commentary, and therefore the approval of the final accounts by this committee at this stage is not appropriate.  It was planned that a full report would be brought forward at the meeting of this committee in February to request approval of the final 2019/20 accounts and accept the external auditors report.  It is also planned at that committee that a further update on the Governments approach for clearing the national backlog of would be made.

• Accounts and Audit briefing note to all Members.

A briefing note was sent out on 10 November 2023, which was to keep Members abreast of the position on the on-going delays to the conclusion and approval of the Council’s Accounts and Audit and set out the reporting made to councillors of these ongoing delays. It was noted that the position of significant delay in accounts and audit processes was seen across many councils nationally and the number of delayed audit opinions now stands Accounts and Audit backlog and delays at 918 with only 5 out of 467 local government audit bodies’ 2022/23 audit opinions issued.

The briefing note provided an overview of the reports and updates which had been presented to Members since 2023, with it noted that Officers continue to work with the current external auditors, Deloitte to ensure conclusions were drawn the outstanding accounts in the most efficient and effective manner, considering the regulatory requirements on both the council and the auditors.

Furthermore, it was acknowledged that longer term change was required to address the underlying issues and challenges to prevent a recurrence of backlogs in the future. This would include addressing workforce issues and ensuring proportionate financial reporting requirements, auditing and regulatory requirements were in place.

Following the announcement, there was a suggestion that the February meeting take place in the Council Chamber, with the hope that all councillors would be able to attend and have an opportunity to discuss the final audited accounts. It was agreed that officers would discuss the logistics of this move and approve if appropriate.

• Stone Circle Scrutiny

The Chairman noted that the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee had established a task group to consider the options for appropriate scrutiny engagement on Stone Circle. This work would begin with an online information briefing for members about Stone Circle on 29 November 2023. All members would receive an invitation. Following this, the task group will begin work, with its final report and recommendations then coming back to OS Management Committee, probably in the new year. Members interested in taking part in the task group should contact henry.powell@wiltshire.gov.uk, Democracy and Complaints Manager.

Following the announcement, concern was raised that the briefing was set to take place at the same time as a meeting of the Strategic Planning Committee, to which officers provided assurance that the briefing would be recorded and that they would be happy to take questions from Members to ensure that everyone was briefed.

In addition, a suggestion was made that it could be worthwhile to insist that Governance procedure was written into any entity created and delivered by the Council. The Chairman suggested that this would likely to be added by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee as a recommendation and that after the report had been produced by the task group it could be added to the agenda.

• Independent Members on Audit & Governance

The Chairman noted that on several occasions attempts had been made to recruit an independent co-opted member to the Audit & Governance Committee, in order to help the Committee in discharging their duty. The Chairman stated a desire to restart this recruitment process and had reviewed the role description, job advert and application form. At present, being a member of a political party would exclude someone from applying for the role. Having considered this, it was believed that whilst a person should declare a membership of a political party, this should not mean that they could not apply for the position. If the successful candidate was a member of a political party, this would be included on their register of interests. 

Following the announcement, Cllrs Sankey and Grant stated that they would be happy to continue partaking in the recruitment process. In addition, a suggestion was made that regarding whether holding office in a political party should be treated separately to being a member of a party. Another area suggested to be considered was whether an applicant was part of a union, to which the Chairman suggested this could be considered appropriate at the application stage by the recruitment panel. The exclusion of Directors of Stone Circle was also suggested, to which the Chairman stated that it was likely that guidance was already in place for this.

Guidance was providing by the Monitoring Officer and Director of Legal and Governance, Perry Holmes, that the aim of the recruitment process should be to recruit someone who would provide a skillset whilst also having a degree of independence.

The Chairman proposed a motion recommendation to restart the recruitment process for an independent co-opted member on the Audit & Governance Committee, to remove the exclusion regarding applicants being in a political party and for Cllrs Gavin Grant and Mike Sankey to partake in the recruitment process. This was seconded by Cllr Adrian Foster.

After which, it was,

Resolved:

·       That the recruitment process for an independent co-opted member on the Audit & Governance Committee be restarted.

·       To remove the exclusion regarding applicants being in a political party.

·       That Cllrs Gavin Grant and Mike Sankey would partake in the recruitment process.