Issue - meetings

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services presented the report which provided Members with information on the appointment of two independent people to the Audit and Governance Committee as recommended by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).

He said that as a result of the Redmond Review in 2020, which considered the effectiveness of external audit and the transparency of financial reporting in local authorities, it was recommended that local authority audit committees should appoint at least one independent member. This was then endorsed by the government in June 2022, and latterly CIPFA who issued guidance recommending that local authority and police audit committees include at least two independent members.

The Audit and Governance Committee recommended to Council at its meeting on 12 April 2023 that two independent members should be appointed to it.

Councillor Dumont proposed that the recommendations in the report be supported. Councillor Daar seconded the proposal.

Councillor Boylan said he welcomed the introduction of an independent member to the Audit and Governance Committee to provide even more scrutiny of public sector finance. He asked if any benchmarking had been done to come up with the level of remuneration.

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services said that benchmarking had taken place amongst other local authorities and the council also had an Independent Person for the Standards Committee so that rate was also taken into consideration.

The motion to support the recommendations having been proposed and seconded was put to the meeting and upon a vote being taken, was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that (a) the appointment of two independent people (known as independent members) to sit on the Audit and Governance Committee for a period of four years, with a possible extension of a further six months to align to the municipal year be approved;

(b) the job advert and job pack as at Appendix A and Appendix B be approved.