Agenda for Audit Committee on Friday, 29th April, 2022, 10.30 am

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Ground Floor Committee Room - Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3NG. View directions

Contact: Kate Morris  0115 876 4353

Items
No. Item

77.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Councillor Chapman – leave

Councillor Radford - personal

78.

Declarations of interests

Minutes:

None.

79.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 470 KB

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 25 February 2022

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 25 February 2022 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

80.

Exemption from Contract Procedure Rules pdf icon PDF 335 KB

Report of the Interim Corporate Director for Finance and Resources

Minutes:

Steve Oakley, Head of Contracting and Procurement, presented the report, which detailed all exemptions requested during the period from the commencement of the Council’s new Constitution in November 2021, and also provided an update on actions taken and planned to improve compliance with the new Constitution, in particular Contract Procedure rules.

 

Resolved to note the number of exemptions from Contract Procedure Rules during quarter three of 2021/22, and the actions being taken to ensure that contracts were awarded in line with Contract Procedure Rules and exemptions only occurred where there was a sound rationale for approving that exemption.

81.

ICT Procurement Audit pdf icon PDF 98 KB

Report of the Interim Corporate Director for Finance and Resources

Minutes:

This item was deferred to the June 2022 meeting of the Committee.

82.

Working Group Updates

Minutes:

Resolved that the Head of Audit and Risk be requested to submit a report, detailing the District Heating and Waste Infrastructure, to a future meeting of this Committee.

83.

Work Plan and Action Log pdf icon PDF 322 KB

Minutes:

Shail Shah, Head of Audit and Risk, stated that work was currently under way to review the remit of Audit as a whole, with a potential for it to ‘add value’, and further updates would be given to the Committee as appropriate.

84.

Service Design and Delivery (including the Transformation Programme) pdf icon PDF 448 KB

Report of the Chief Executive

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Ita O’Donovan, Interim Director for Strategy and Policy, presented the report, detailing the progress to date in delivering Theme 7 of the Together for Nottingham Plan, the council’s approach to reviewing the design and delivery of services to the community.

 

Resolved to note the report.

85.

Equality and HR Assurance annual report pdf icon PDF 483 KB

Report of the Director for HR & EDI

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Richard Henderson, Director for HR and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, presented the report, detailing work to date on Theme 6 of the Together for Nottingham Plan, ‘Organisation and Culture’, and highlighting that organisational and statutory requirements are being met or progressed and monitored through activity in relevant functions/areas.

 

Resolved

 

(1)  to note the work being done within the HR/EDI division to deliver on the Theme 6, Organisation and Culture work stream, of the Together for Nottingham Plan, and to ensure the Council’s statutory and non-statutory obligations relating to people management and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion were being met and/or progressed;

 

(2)  that the Director of HR and EDI be requested to submit an update report, detailing the challenges in respect of staffing resourcing, to this Committee in 6 months’ time.

86.

Annual Report of Health and Safety within the Council pdf icon PDF 348 KB

Report of the Interim Corporate Director for Finance and Resources

Minutes:

Paul Millward, Head of Resilience, presented the annual Health and Safety within the Council report.

 

Resolved

 

(1)  that all Corporate Directors be requested to ensure that by Friday 8 July 2022:

 

(a)  their directorate colleagues can demonstrate up to date training in all mandatory health and safety courses, and where appropriate, asbestos management;

 

(b)   all outstanding Accident/Violence/Audit recommendations are completed and recorded on the corporate system;

 

(2)  to note the absence of any Health and Safety Executive intervention at the council during the past three years.

87.

Exclusion of the public

To consider excluding the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining items in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information

 

Minutes:

The Committee resolved to exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining items in accordance with Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining an exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

88.

Exempt Minutes

To confirm the exempt minutes of the meeting held on 25 February 2022

Minutes:

The Committee agreed the exempt minutes of the meeting held on 25 February 2022 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

89.

Information Compliance and Information Security Annual Assurance Report 2022

Report of the Interim Corporate Director for Finance and Resources

Minutes:

Naomi Matthews, Data Protection Officer, and Simon Salmon, Head of IT, presented the report, which provided independent assurance to the Committee of the adequacy of the information compliance framework and the internal control environment.

 

Resolved to note the report.