Agenda and minutes

No declarations of interest were received.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Brown, Dyke and McManus.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the Standards and Audit Committee meeting held on 6 February 2015.

To ratify the formal decisions taken at the inquorate meeting held on 6 February 2015.

RESOLVED –

1)             That the Minutes of the meeting the Standards and Audit Committee meeting held on 6 February 2015 be approved as a true record.

2)             That the formal decisions taken at the inquorate meeting on 6 February 2015 be ratified.

The Interim Head of Internal Audit Consortium submitted a report to present to Members the Internal Audit Plan 2015/16 for consideration and agreement.

The key requirement of the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards was that a period risk based plan should be prepared that was sufficiently flexible to reflect the changing risks and priorities of the organisation. The risk based plan would be fixed for a period of no longer than one year, outlining the assignments to be carried out, their respective priorities and the estimated resources needed.

An Annual Report summarising the outcome of the 2014/15 internal audit plan would be presented to this Committee after the year end.

The detailed plan for 2015/16 was attached at Appendix 2 to the report and had been prepared taking into account the following factors:

·        The organisational objectives and priorities;

·        Local and national issues and risks;

·        The requirement to produce an annual internal audit opinion;

·        The organisations assurance framework;

·        An update of the internal audit risk assessment exercise

·        covering the financial control and other procedures subject to

·        audit;

·        The Council’s strategic risk register and

·        The views of the Chief Financial Officer.

The plan allocated 560 days to Chesterfield Borough Council for 2015/16, which was the same allocation as in 2014/15.

A copy of the audit plan was to be provided to the Council’s external auditor to facilitate co-ordination of work programmes.

*RESOLVED –

That the Internal Audit Plan for 2015/16 be agreed.

The Interim Head of Internal Audit Consortium submitted a report summarising the Internal Audit reports issued for the period 17 January – 13 March 2015 in respect of reports relating to the 2015/16 internal audit plan.

*RESOLVED –

That the report be noted.

The Solicitor (Local Government and Regulatory Law) and Deputy

Monitoring Officer submitted a report seeking approval to amend the Council’s Constitution following changes introduced by the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (“the 2014 Act”).

Cabinet approved the revised Anti-social Behaviour Policy 2015-2019 on 24 March 2015 (Cabinet Minute No. 216 (2014/15)). New delegated powers were proposed as a consequence of the new powers introduced by the 2014 Act.

*RESOLVED –

That the appropriate amendments be made to the Council’s

Constitution in accordance with the delegations listed in the Appendix to the report.

The Chair thanked Officers and Members for supporting the work of the Standards and Audit Committee. The Chair particularly thanked Councillor McManus, who was standing down, for his service as a long-standing member of the Committee.