Issue - meetings

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services

The Communications and Customer Services Manager presented the Risk Management Progress Report and confirmed that this comprised 36 corporate risks, 21 operational risks and three opportunity risks.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager took the Group through changes to the risk register and said that no new risks had been identified and that three had been removed, including central Government funding following the settlement last year. He noted that that areas of increased risk included the 5-year housing supply and asylum relocation scheme and that there was reduced risk in relation to inflation, the council's Carbon Management Plan and CCTV cameras.

Councillor Gowland asked whether the Council’s IT systems operated on local systems or if they were cloud based and what mitigation was in place if the cloud went down. The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that the Council used a cloud based system and had made much investment to ensure that its system was as robust and safe as possible and regularly reviewed possible threats and implications. He said that he would report back to the Group on cloud mitigation in the next Risk Management update.

Councillor Chewings referred to the increased risk in the asylum relocation scheme and asked what had changed to lead to this increase. The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that this was due to Serco indicating that they may be looking at more properties within the Borough, although assurances had been given as to how the properties would be assessed and managed. He noted that this had been discussed at a recent Communities Scrutiny Group meeting.

Mr Causton asked whether the Council had conducted a simulated cyber-attack, if there were any lessons learned from it and whether those lessons could be brought to the next meeting of this Committee. The Communications and Customer Services Manager confirmed that the Council had conducted simulated attacks and he would confirm to the Group about any outcomes. The Assistant Director for Finance added that a confidential report had been prepared by Internal Audit, feedback from which could be shared with the Group at the next Internal Audit update report.

Councillor Thomas referred to the risk related to staff retention and asked whether the Council had any budgetary provision to deal with this, particularly in the LGR transition year. The Assistant Director for Finance said that the Council had an LGR reserve and whilst it had not been allocated to specific items as yet, staffing was a potential allocation in the future.

Councillor Thomas referred to an increase in risk for Gamston SPD and noted its impact on the five-year housing supply and GNSP and asked whether the mitigations in place were sufficient. The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that the Council was lobbying Government to review national policy and noted the difficulty in managing a site of this size and complexity and the associated impact on housing land supply. Councillor Thomas thought that the Council needed to be more proactive and look for measures that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32