Audit Committee - 23 November 2020

AUDIT COMMITTEE

For a virtual/remote meeting to be held on Monday 23 November 2020 at 7.30pm.

Members of the Audit Committee:-

Councillors:-      Margaret Hofman (Chair)

Tony Humphreys

Joan King

Michael Revan      Keith Martin (Vice-Chair)

Dominic Sokalski

Shanti Maru

Joanne Wagstaffe, Chief Executive

13 November 2020

(The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 made under the Coronavirus Act 2020 enable Council/Committee meetings to be held in a virtual format and enables remote attendance.

The meeting starts at 7.30pm and will be virtual/remote meeting in that it will be conducted at no specific location and all participants are at various locations, communicating via audio and online.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public to its discussion on Part I agenda items at Committee meetings.  Contributions will be limited to one person speaking for and one against each item for not more than three minutes. Please note that in the event of registering your interest to speak on an agenda item but not taking up that right because the item is deferred, you will automatically be given the right to speak on that item at the next meeting of the Committee.  Details of the procedure are provided below:

Members of the public wishing to speak will be entitled to register and identify which Part I report they wish to speak on from the published agenda for the remote meeting.  Those who wish to register to speak must do so by notifying the Committee Team by e-mail 48 hours before the meeting. The first 2 people to register (1 for and 1 against) will be sent a link so that they can join the meeting to exercise that right.  This will also allow the Committee Team to prepare the speaker sheet in advance of the remote meeting to forward to the Chair of the meeting.

In accordance with The Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 any matters considered under Part 1 business only of the meeting may be filmed, recorded, photographed, broadcast or reported via social media by any person.

Recording and reporting the Council's meetings is subject to the law and it is the responsibility of those doing the recording and reporting to ensure compliance.  This will include the Human Rights Act, the Data Protection Act and the laws of libel and defamation.

Please note that the meeting is being held virtually. The business of the meeting will be live streamed at:- (Link archived)

The virtual/remote committee meeting protocol is provided below:

protocol-for-virtual-committee-meetings-sept-2020

1.          APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

2.         MINUTES

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the Audit Committee meeting held on 11 November 2020.

20-11-11-draft-minutes

3.         NOTICE OF ANY OTHER BUSINESS

4.         DECLARATION OF INTERESTS

To receive any declarations of interest.

5.         EXTERNAL AUDITORS REPORT AND APPROVAL OF THE 2019/20 STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS

To formally approve the 2019/20 Statement of Accounts and receive the report of the External Auditor.  Please see the weblink below to the Statement of Accounts the External Auditor report will follow.

 https://www.threerivers.gov.uk/egcl-page/statement-of-accounts

The Committee will be asked to agree the following recommendations:

1. That the Committee approve the Statement of Accounts for 2019/20 subject to final agreement by the Section 151 Officer (Interim Director of Finance);
2. That the Section 151 Officer be delegated to finalise the Statement of Accounts for 2019/20  in consultation with the Members of the Audit Committee;
3. That the Committee authorise and instruct the Chair to sign the Statement of Accounts for 2019/20 once finalised and signed by the Section 151 Officer to confirm that the statement of accounts presents a true and fair view of—(a)the financial position of the authority at the end of the financial year to which it relates; and (b) that authority's income and expenditure for that financial year;
4. That the Statement of Accounts be published by 30 November 2020

6.         ANY OTHER BUSINESS

7.         EXCLUSION OF THE PRESS AND PUBLIC

If any confidential business is approved under item 3, it will also be necessary to specify the class of exempt or confidential information in the additional item(s) and a resolution to be passed in the following terms

“that under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined under the respective paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act”.

OTHER BUSINESS – if approved under item 3 above

General Enquiries to the Committee Team at CommitteeTeam@threerivers.gov.uk