Members considered a draft annual internal audit plan based on assurance mapping and risk assessments across the Authority’s critical services.

Assurance Lincolnshire provided an introduction, outlining the following points:

·         The plan was discussed with internal audit management, and managers at West Lindsey District Council (WLDC).  The plan outlines which aspects of the Council’s business and processes of the Authority would be audited over the course of the following civic year;

·         In the opinion of Assurance Lincolnshire, there was a good mix of internal audits over key projects;

·         The Lea Fields Crematorium was a big new project undertaken by WLDC, and it would be useful to have this independently audited;

·         Other subjects would arise from ‘assurance mapping’; the draft plan was flexible, and could be changed mid-year if required.

Members then asked questions of officers, and also provided comment.  Further information was provided:

·         The ‘red, amber and green (RAG)’ risk ratings were discussed with council management, and had three levels of assurance.  These levels were:

o   How managers feel about the service;

o   Corporate information;

o   Audit opinion.

There was also an audit scoring mechanism, based on how material it was to the Authority, and when the subject matter was last audited.  All of this information taken together resulted in a ‘RAG’ rating;

·         There were a lot of subject areas across the Authority and it would be impossible to audit them all over the course of a year.  In conjunction with Council management, all subject areas were reviewed, as there could be other routes to assurance.

The first point of assurance was always internal management;

·         The equality and diversity audit was last carried out in 2009, but would be discussed at the next Prosperous Communities meeting in March;

·         Another level of assurance comes from the Head of Internal Audit.  Also, the result of the recently completed peer review gives an independent high level test;

·         Internal Audit conformed with professional standards, tested internally and externally every five years.  The last mid cycle review for Internal Audit was around two and a half years ago, and was well commended by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).

WLDC was also subject to the External Audit regime, which provided a further level of assurance;

·         There would be sufficient time to complete all of the planned audits, including the crematorium audit.  If Members required assurance above and beyond the work that Internal Audit carried out then it would be important to find other means of gaining this assurance, ideally from internal management;

·         Internal Audit look at both the least and most expensive projects in the organisation;

·         When the larger projects go awry it would be a much bigger impact for the Authority;

·         Educational attainment was one of the key deliverables in the Corporate Plan; in turn, failure to deliver the Corporate Plan was a strategic risk.  WLDC did not directly influence the education sector, but were involved in mentoring and intervention.  This mentoring and intervention was targeted at a range of lifelong skills.

The ‘red’ or ‘high’ risk attached to educational attainment was a correlation of two factors; whether that risk would materialise, and its impact should it happen.  As a result of it being a ‘red’, or ‘high’ risk, controls and activities were scheduled to mitigate the risk;

·         Although some of the cyclical audits have not been carried out since 2010 by Internal Audit, they were still looked at by council management.  For example, Business Continuity was refreshed in light of the evolving risk of Covid-19;

·         One of the strategic risks was ‘the inability to maintain critical services and deal with emergency events’ – this would be seen by Governance and Audit committee later in the year.  Emergency planning had been reviewed ahead of ‘Brexit’; more recently it had also been tested through the flooding events in the region.

RESOLVED to note and agree the contents of the report and be assured that the plan provides robust coverage of the Council’s critical areas and services.