Issue - meetings

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services

Mr Amstrong presented the Internal Audit Strategy and explained that under the global Internal Audit standards it was required that the Internal Audit Plan and Internal Audit Charter be presented to Members. He noted that there were nine audits scheduled for 2026/27, with 150 internal audit days, both of which were consistent with the current year. He explained that a range of service areas had been identified to ensure broad coverage of the Council’s services and included core assurance areas such as the Council’s financial systems and GDPR.

Mr Armstrong referred Members of the Group to page 48 of the report which set out the three-year plan and said that this was not fixed and was more of a horizon scanning plan. He referred Members of the Group to the Internal Audit Charter on page 49 of the report, which set out the role of this Committee and the expectations of management in engaging with Internal Audit.

Councillor Thomas asked why Gamston SPD had not been selected for review. Mr Armstrong said that the selection process was multi phased, incorporating the Council’s own risk registers alongside an understanding of key risks within the sector along with discussion with the Executive Management Team. He said that it was considered that the risk could be managed through existing controls and did not necessarily merit a full internal audit as there were ongoing assurances in place. The Director for Finance and Corporate Services said that there were various governance and assurances in place for planning processes, including for example, the Planning Inspector.

Councillor Om asked how many audits were completed in 2025/26 and Mr Armstrong said that there were nine, with 150 audit days, with the number of audit days remaining at 150 every year, which was considered sufficient to provide an Internal Audit opinion on the Council’s governance, internal controls and risk management at the end of the year. The Director for Finance and Corporate Services said that the Council could also call in Internal Audit if required in addition to this.

It was RESOLVED that the Governance Scrutiny Group reviewed and approved:

a)    the Internal Audit Plan and Charter 2026/27-2028/29 Appendix A

b)    the Internal Audit Strategy, Appendix 1 of the Internal Audit Plan

c)    the Quality Assurance Improvement Plan (QAIP) Appendix 2 of the Internal Audit Plan.