Issue - meetings

(A) That the 2025/26 quarter four corporate risk register and actions being taken to control and mitigate risk be considered and noted.

The Director for Finance, Risk and Performance submitted a report that provided Audit and Governance Committee with the corporate risk register for Quarter 4 of 2025/26 and sets out how East Herts manages these risks.

The Director for Finance, Risk and Performance said that at the February meeting, Members had discussed the existing Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) risk. Members had indicated that the risk considerations needed to be broadened out to better reflect the potential impact of significant management time and organisational focus on LGR.

Members were advised that this feedback had been carefully considered and rather than expanding the existing risk, which focused primarily on electoral arrangements and members terms of office, a new strategic risk had been created to specifically capture the impact of LGR.

The Director for Finance, Risk and Performance said that this new strategic risk created greater transparency and allowed the risks associated with LGR to be monitored separately. The Committee was also informed of ongoing work to strengthen the Council’s risk management arrangements, including officer and member training, implementation of recommendations arising from the recent Internal Audit review, and further development of risk indicators and mitigation measures.

Members questioned whether the climate change risk should be reviewed in light of increasingly extreme weather events and the potential impact on Council operations and buildings. Officers advised that all strategic risks were reviewed quarterly by the Leadership Team and the Director for Finance, Risk and Performance agreed to consider whether the risk score, implications and mitigation actions required further revision as part of the next review cycle.

Members also discussed cyber security risks and the rapidly developing threat landscape, including emerging risks associated with artificial intelligence. The Committee suggested that the existing cyber security risk could be broadened to reflect wider technological threats.

The Director for Finance, Risk and Performance explained that cyber security arrangements were regularly reviewed through the shared IT service and that a significant number of attempted cyber-attacks were successfully prevented each year through the Council’s existing security controls and protections.

Councillor Connolly proposed and Councillor Jacobs seconded, a motion that the2025/26 quarter four corporate risk register and actions being taken to control and mitigate risk have been considered and noted.

After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that the 2025/26 quarter four corporate risk register and actions being taken to control and mitigate risk have been considered and noted.