Issue - meetings

To receive the Internal Audit Activity Report.

The Principal Auditor presented the Internal Audit Activity Report.

The report updated Members on the progress made against the 2024/25 Internal Audit Plan and the recent work of Internal Audit.  Also set out in the report was a proposal for a future review of the effectiveness of the Audit Committee.

The key focus during the reporting period was the completion of audits set out on the annual audit plan and fulfilling commercial contracts which would feed into and inform the Internal Audit opinion in the Annual Report.

From a total of 46 audits, eight were in progress, seven had been completed and six had been deferred due to a staff vacancy within the Audit Team.   Recruitment was currently underway to fill the vacant post. 

Work continued on commercial contracts which included a total of nine Academy Trusts and two Town Councils and Internal Audit continued to look for opportunities to expand their commercial offering.

Internal Audit maintained a Quality Assurance and Improvement Programme which complied with the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards (PSIAS).  The Audit, Governance & Procurement Lead Manager undertook an independent monthly check of completed audit files randomly selected to ensure they complied with the following:

· Requirements of the PSIAS

· Rules of the Code of Ethics

· Agreed Internal Audit process and procedures

· Approved Internal Audit Charter

Following these checks, only minor internal Audit procedural issues had been identified and these had been fed back to Internal Auditors in order to aid continuous improvement within the service.

In relation to the effectiveness of the Audit Committee, there were no specific legal requirements for this, but there were audit regulations to review the effectiveness of the systems of control and audit function.  The last review took place in 2021.  Members were asked to consider undertaking the next review of the effectiveness of the audit committee in 2025/26 due to the recent elections and the Members on the Committee being relatively new.

During the debate, some members were encouraged to see that follow up audits had taken place and that the gradings had moved from red to green.

The Principal Auditor confirm that a lot of progress had been made particularly in areas that had required time to embed new processes and procedures.  She informed Members that interviews were taking place shortly in respect of recruitment.  

Upon being put to the vote it was, unanimously:

RESOLVED – that:

a)    the information contained in this report in respect to the Internal Audit planned work undertaken between 1 July 2024 and 31 October 2024 and unplanned work to date be noted;

b)   the review of the effectiveness of the Audit Committee be agreed; and the report be noted.