Issue - meetings

The Monitoring Officer presented the Quarter One Review of Strategic Risks 2024/25 report which considered risks categorised into the four Corporate themes of Our Council, Our People, Our Place and overarching risks. The Management Team reviewed strategic risks regularly in their meetings. Since the last update presented at Committee, the commentary, controls and actions had been updated in the report and a new risk had been added in relation to a cyber security threat surrounding the General Election and democratic processes. Members were requested to consider the report and determine if there were any other risks.

Members discussed the report and thanked Officers for the useful detail. Members asked a question surrounding meeting customer expectations and how this could be improved. The Section 151 Officer responded that customer service were front of house for resident contact and it was important to continually review improvements to customer service and engaging with residents.

Members expressed concern relating to the collection rate of council tax and extreme weather events. The Section 151 assured Members that actions were in place to improve the collection rate and suggested monthly reporting on the collection rate to be shared with Members. In terms of extreme weather events, Officers were considering what controls could be in place and monitoring of the extreme weather periods.

RESOLVED that the Governance and Audit Committee reviewed the register and considered if there were any additional risks of a strategic nature and if the current controls and proposed actions were sufficiently robust.