Issue - meetings

To receive the Joint Report on the Internal Audit Annual Report 2025/26 & The Audit Committee Report & The 2026/27 Annual audit Plan.

The Head of Governance, Audit & Procurement and the Principal Auditor presented the Internal Audit Annual Report and the Audit Committee Work Programme Review or 2025/26 and 2026/27 and the Annual Audit Plan.

The work of Internal Audit and the Chief Internal Auditor, as set out in the Terms of Reference, was to review and monitor the progress and the activity undertaken and produce the Internal Audit Plan.  A self-assessment would be presented to a future committee meeting to comply with audit standards.

Part of the role as Chief Internal Auditor, was to issue an audit opinion and the council had been given a reasonable assurance on the adequacy and effectiveness of risk management and internal controls and this could not be taken for granted.

The Principal Auditor set out details of the reports that had been issued and their gradings and how this compared to previous years.

During the reporting period, the yellow gradings had decreased slightly on the previous year.  In 2025/26, 28% of the recommendations related to financial requirements in the Constitution which was an increase from the 2024/25 figure of 16% and Internal Audit would continue to remind services on the need to comply with those requirements. The percentage of policy and procedure recommendations had decreased with the percentage of legal recommendations remaining comparable to the previous year.

Although the Internal Audit Team had experienced some resource challenges during the year, staff had achieved 90% of the Audit Plan and had complied with the Global Internal Audit Standards which came into effect in April 2025.  An assessment against these standards was required every five years and the council would be assessed in 2027. The Internal Audit Team monitored its performance using set key performance indicators which had all been met except for the draft audit reports being issued within 15 days which was attributed to the training of a new member of staff and answering additional questions raised at the draft report review stage.  Performance monitoring was also undertaken during customer feedback and from those completed feedback forms received it showed that 100% of customers felt the service that had been received was excellent, very good or good.

Internal Audit continued to perform well and make a positive contribution board the council’s governance arrangements.

The Work Plan Review showed the work of the Audit Committee during 2025/26 which set out that the Committee had considered comprehensive agendas throughout the year in order to provide assurance on audit, governance, risk management, financial statements, and anti-fraud and corruption.  The Committee recognised that the council would continue to experience significant challenges given the local government environment nationally and it must continue to provide assurance during 2026/27.

During the debate some Members asked about recruitment of staff and if there were many vacancies for internal auditors on the team and was it a niche market to try and recruit to, was there a time lag or were the council growing their own.  Other Members felt in relation to the survey, what  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10