Agenda item

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services

Mr Armstrong from BDO, the Council’s Internal Auditors, presented the Internal Audit Progress Report for Quarter 4 and confirmed that this covered work completed within the final quarter of the year.

Mr Armstrong said that two final reports had been issued during the period, covering Health and Safety and Procurement and advised that work had started on the 2026/27 audit plan.

In relation to Health and Safety, Mr Armstrong explained that this related to corporate health and safety matters, such as policies and procedures and training. He said that the audit had received Substantial for Design and Moderate for Effectiveness ratings, with one medium and five low level recommendations, with a finding that better usage could be made of the accident reporting system to improve document retention and demonstrate remediation actions.

In relation to Procurement, Mr Armstrong explained that a Moderate rating for Design and Effectiveness had been given, with one medium and one low level recommendation. He noted that significant changes had been made to procurement legislation in the past 18 months and that this finding was in line with the wider public sector industry and that a key finding had related to non-compliance with some internal procedures.

The Chair asked what areas had been explored and reviewed as part of the Health and Safety audit. Mr Armstrong said that four key areas had been covered by the review, including ensuring the required policies and procedures were in place, that required and appropriate training had taken place, particularly for the higher risk roles, that the risk assessment process was fit for purpose and that appropriate reporting and recording of accidents and incidents was being completed. He said that the audit finding related to the recording of accidents and incidents with an update to recording and documentation practices having already been undertaken. He noted that no significant accidents or incidents had been reported that had needed to be escalated to other agencies during the period reviewed but that a comment had been raised around a potential increase in reporting of near misses as reporting appeared lower than might typically be expected for an organisation of the Council’s size. He explained that increased reporting of near misses could be a positive indicator of awareness and culture, and work would be undertaken to ensure employees understood what constituted a near miss and how to report it. The audit also found that while some supporting documents could be obtained, they were not consistently held centrally on the system and action had already been taken to improve this.

In relation to Procurement, Mr Armstrong said the new Procurement Act 2023, had come into force in February 2025 and he confirmed preparedness for the new legislation had formed part of the review and that positive work had been undertaken by the Council, including the development of templates, tools and guidance to support officers undertaking purchasing activity.

Mr Armstrong explained that the procurement finding related to non-compliance with some internal procedures and advised of an instance where the policy required three quotations but only two had been obtained and of an instance where a signed order was not available. Mr Armstrong explained that these examples did not suggest fundamental control failure, as procurement activity had still taken place, but they highlighted gaps in evidencing compliance with internal requirements.

It was RESOLVED that the Governance Scrutiny Group considered the quarter 4 progress report for 2025/26 (Appendix A) prepared by the Council’s Internal Auditor.