(Public Pack)Agenda Document for Audit Committee, 23/11/2020 14:00
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Public Document Pack Audit Committee Agenda Date: Monday, 23 November 2020 Time: 2.00 pm Venue: Virtual Meeting - Zoom Committee Meeting with Public Access via YouTube Distribution: Councillors: Nicola Bowden-Jones, Chris Jackson, Olly Mead, Liz Radford, Clive Stevens, Tim Kent, Adebola Adebayo, Simon Cookson and Mark Brain Copies to: Simba Muzarurwi (Chief Internal Auditor), Mike Jackson (Chief Executive), Denise Murray (Director - Finance & Section 151 Officer), Nancy Rollason (Head of Legal Service), Alison Mullis, Tony Whitlock, Lucy Fleming (Head of Democratic Engagement) and Michael Pilcher Issued by: Allison Taylor, Democratic Services City Hall, PO Box 3167, Bristol BS3 9FS Tel: 0117 92 22237 E-mail: [email protected] Date: Friday, 13 November 2020 Audit Committee – Agenda Agenda 1. Welcome, Introductions and Safety Information (Pages 4 - 5) 2. Apologies for absence. 3. Declarations of Interest To note any declarations of interest from the Councillors. They are asked to indicate the relevant agenda item, the nature of the interest and in particular whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest. Any declarations of interest made at the meeting which is not on the register of interests should be notified to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion. 4. Minutes of Previous Meeting To agree the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record. (Pages 6 - 12) 5. Action sheet (Pages 13 - 16) 6. Public Forum Up to 30 minutes is allowed for this item. Any member of the public or Councillor may participate in Public Forum. The detailed arrangements for so doing are set out in the Public Information Sheet at the back of this agenda. Public Forum items should be emailed to [email protected] and please note that the following deadlines will apply in relation to this meeting:- Questions - Written questions must be received 3 clear working days prior to the meeting. For this meeting, this means that your question(s) must be received in this office at the latest by 5 pm on Tuesday 17 November 2020. Petitions and Statements - Petitions and statements must be received on the working day prior to the meeting. For this meeting this means that your submission must be received in this office at the latest by 12.00 noon on Friday 20 November 2020. Audit Committee – Agenda 7. Audit Committee Work Programme To note the work programme. (Pages 17 - 18) 8. External Audit Update Report (Pages 19 - 33) 9. Annual Report of Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Decisions (Pages 34 - 53) 10. Access to Information (Pages 54 - 58) 11. Lord Mayor's Protocol (Pages 59 - 66) 12. Internal Audit Quality Assurance and Improvement Programme (Pages 67 - 95) 13. Internal Audit Update (Pages 96 - 99) 14. Counter Fraud Half Year Update Report (Pages 100 - 122) 15. Audit Committee Half Year Report (Pages 123 - 131) 16. Treasury Management Mid Year Report 20/21 (Pages 132 - 148) Agenda Item 1 www.bristol.gov.uk Public Information Sheet Inspection of Papers - Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 You can find papers for all our meetings on our website at https://www.bristol.gov.uk/council-meetings Covid-19: changes to how we hold public meetings Following changes to government rules, we’ll use video conferencing to hold all public meetings, including Cabinet, Full Council, regulatory meetings (where planning and licensing decisions are made) and scrutiny. Councillors will use Zoom or Skype for Business to take part in the meetings and vote on agenda items. We’ll stream the meetings live on YouTube. You can submit statements, questions and petitions ahead of the meetings in the same way as usual. We will send all statements to participating Councillors in advance and respond to all questions and petitions in writing. You will not be able to present a public submission at the meeting at the current time. We’re looking into options for increasing public participation at meetings held using video conferencing, including being able to present a statement or ask supplementary questions using Zoom. We hope to have this in place in by late May 2020. Email [email protected] if you have any questions. Public Forum Members of the public may make a written statement ask a question or present a petition to most meetings. Your statement or question will be sent to the Committee. Please submit it to [email protected] The following requirements apply: The statement is received no later than 12.00 noon on the working day before the meeting and is about a matter which is the responsibility of the committee concerned. The question is received no later than 5pm three clear working days before the meeting. Any statement submitted should be no longer than one side of A4 paper. For copyright reasons, we are unable to reproduce or publish newspaper or magazine articles that may be attached to statements. By participating in public forum business, we will assume that you have consented to your name and the details of your submission being recorded and circulated to the Committee and published within the minutes. Your statement or question will also be made available to the public at the meeting to which it relates and may be provided upon request in response to Freedom of Information Act requests in the future. Page 4 www.bristol.gov.uk We will try to remove personal and identifiable information. However, because of time constraints we cannot guarantee this, and you may therefore wish to consider if your statement contains information that you would prefer not to be in the public domain. Public Forum statements will not be posted on the council’s website. Other committee papers may be placed on the council’s website and information within them may be searchable on the internet. During the meeting: Public Forum is normally one of the first items on the agenda, although statements and petitions that relate to specific items on the agenda may be taken just before the item concerned. There will be no debate on statements or petitions. Public Forum will be circulated to the Committee members prior to the meeting and then noted at the meeting. Please note that only written submissions can be considered at this time. For further information about procedure rules please refer to our Constitution https://www.bristol.gov.uk/how-council-decisions-are-made/constitution The privacy notice for Democratic Services can be viewed at www.bristol.gov.uk/about-our- website/privacy-and-processing-notices-for-resource-services Webcasting/ Recording of meetings Members of the public attending meetings or taking part in Public forum are advised that all Full Council and Cabinet meetings and some other committee meetings are now filmed for live or subsequent broadcast via the council's webcasting pages. The whole of the meeting is filmed (except where there are confidential or exempt items). Other formats and languages and assistance for those with hearing impairment You can get committee papers in other formats (e.g. large print, audio tape, braille etc) or in community languages by contacting the Democratic Services Officer. Please give as much notice as possible. We cannot guarantee re-formatting or translation of papers before the date of a particular meeting. Page 5 Agenda Item 4 Bristol City Council Minutes of the Audit Committee 28 September 2020 at 2.00 pm Members Present:- Councillors: Chris Jackson, Olly Mead, Liz Radford, Clive Stevens, Tim Kent, Adebola Adebayo, Simon Cookson and Mark Brain Officers in Attendance:- Simba Muzarurwi (Chief Internal Auditor), Denise Murray (Director - Finance & Section 151 Officer), Alison Mullis (Deputy Chief Internal Auditor) and Michael Pilcher (Chief Accountant) 1. Welcome, Introductions and Safety Information The Chair welcomed Members to Committee. 2. Apologies for absence. Apologies were received from Cllr Nicola Bowden Jones 3. Declarations of Interest Cllr Clive Stevens, declared a pecuniary interest as he has recently produced a book about local government. However, he does not believe it is necessary to withdraw from any items on the agenda. Cllr Tim Kent declared an interest as he has a relative with an Education Health and Care Plan, and children with Special Educational Needs are likely to come up in discussion. 4. Minutes of Previous Meeting Adebola Adebayo is incorrectly listed as Chief Internal Auditor, this needs correcting. Once this correction is made, the minutes of the 27 August 2020 Audit Committee are agreed as a correct record. Page 6 [email protected] 5. Action sheet Discussion Notes: The response to Colin Molton’s Projects says that the details are available in the 30 April 2020 HR report. However, that information is not available to members of the public. It was confirmed that a list of projects was given in response to Audit Committee PQ02 on the 27 August 2020 and that this would be circulated to members after the meeting (ACTION). 6. Public Forum The following Public Forum was received: Questions Number Name Title PQ1 Suzanne Audrey Committee Access to Information PQ2 Suzanne Audrey SIRO Assurance Report PQ3 Joanna Booth Bristol Energy PQ4 Joanna Booth Bristol Energy Minutes PQ5 Joanna Booth SIRO Assurance Report CQ1 Cllr Clive Stevens Committee Access to Information Discussion notes: The Monitoring Officer will be writing to Audit Committee members about Access to Information explaining the legal regime. This letter could potentially be made public if this is deemed appropriate. (ACTION) PQ2 supplementary question: the response says the reports will be published at the end of the year. What is the reason for them not being published now? (ACTION) It was confirmed to committee that answers to public forum are drafted by council officers and are not pre-approved by the chair.