Agenda item

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property introduced the report. He said that following the backstop date of December, Members would note the extra meeting of the Committee which was scheduled for between March and May of 2025 – as this would enable receipt of the External Auditors report.

The Chair thanked the Head of Strategic Finance and Property for his report and asked for confirmation that officers would be able to produce reports for the extra meeting of the Committee which had been scheduled for 30 October 2024.

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that reports would be available for the October meeting. Councillor Deering asked if Members were now content that the Work Programme contained enough meetings.

The Chair said that there was now an extra meeting arranged for October 2024 and that another was scheduled for a date in-between March and May 2025. He said that the date for the latter could be arranged now, but that it might be better to confirm this once the External Auditor had given an indication on the expected delivery date of their report.  

Councillor Deering said that he understood the need not to have meetings ‘for meetings sake’, but that structure was required.

The Committee Support Officer clarified that the next meeting of the Committee was originally due to be in November 2024, but as per requests from Members an extra meeting had been arranged for 30 October 2024 (in part to ease the number of items on agendas). She said that it had not been possible to insert another meeting in-between the last meeting of the Committee in May 2024 and this evening’s due to the two elections which had taken place over the spring/summer.

Mr Sharman said that he welcomed the extra detail on the Work Programme, and that the insertion of the extra October meeting was good for agenda volume. He said however that not having a meeting in-between January 2025 and May 2025 felt too long.

Councillor Deering said that he agreed with the comments of Mr Sharman, and that he would therefore be happy to propose that a meeting of the Committee be arranged for April 2025.

The Committee Support Officer said that the meeting in question was detailed in the Work Programme and would take place on a date in-between March and May 2025. She said that as per the discussion, a more specific date could not be given at this time due to the External Auditor’s currently unknown timescales/availability for delivery of their report. 

The Chair said that more would be known regarding the report timescales following the November 2024 meeting, and that a specific date for the meeting could then be set.   

Councillor Deering said that the feeling amongst Members was that a specific date should be set, and that from a personal view he preferred dates to be in his diary. He said that he understood that should a date be arranged for April 2025, and then be unable to be met it could be revisited.

It was moved by Councillor Deering and seconded by Councillor Hart, that an additional recommendation, as detailed, be added and approved. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, this motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that a meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee be scheduled for April 2025.

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property advised that the meeting in question would need to be scheduled before the 14 April 2025 due to the upcoming County elections.

It was moved by Councillor Nicholls and seconded by Councillor Hart, that the recommendations, as detailed, be approved. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, this motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that (A) the work programme as set out in the report be approved; and

B) that any training requirements be specified; and

C) that a meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee be scheduled for April 2025.