Issue - meetings

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services

The Communications and Customer Services Manager presented the Draft Risk Management Strategy. He confirmed that the current Strategy was due to expire in April and in consideration of the expected Local Government Reorganisation in the near future, a light touch review had been undertaken.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that there had been no major changes in good practice legislation nor to the Council’s risk appetite and confirmed that the Council remained committed to adopting a practice of identification, evaluation, and cost-effective control of risks. He said that the Council sought to ensure that risks were reduced to within the Council’s level of risk tolerance or were eliminated, to maximise opportunities to achieve the council's corporate objectives and deliver core service provision.

The Chair asked about the Council’s risk appetite number. The Assistant Director for Finance said that the Council maintained a balanced approach to its risk appetite, with the risk appetite varying dependent on the different specifics of different scenarios and the different potential outcomes. She referred to the risk matrix in the report which indicated how the Council assessed risk and what would be considered a red risk.

The Chair said that organisations often had a number indicating their overall level of risk tolerance, with anything above or below being rejected or tolerated, with risk leads and operational risk managers operating within that. He thought that the Council was taking more of a pick and mix approach and the Assistant Director for Finance said that she would feedback the Chair’s comments (to feedback when the next Risk Management report was discussed).

Councillor Thomas said that LGR had changed the risks faced by the Council and thought that this could have been an opportunity to reassess the risk strategy. The Chair said that in light of LGR the organisation needed to review its way of managing its risk register.

Councillor Thomas asked about membership of the Risk Management Group and the Assistant Director for Finance said that it was the Executive Management Team, in consultation with the Monitoring Officer.

It is RESOLVED that Governance Scrutiny Group:

a)    Considered the attached draft Risk Management Strategy for 2026-2029

b)    Approved the Risk Management Strategy for 2026-2029.