To consider an overview of the Council’s risk position as at December 2015.

The Committee considered a report which provided an overview of the Council’s risk position as at December 2015.

The Head of Internal Audit and Risk introduced the report, including the Risk Register Dashboard attached at Appendix A to the report. She drew Members’ attention to the key revisions relating to the following:

·         strategic risks

·         operational risks

·         emerging risks

The Committee noted that, whilst a fundamental review of the Risk Register was scheduled to take place in February 2016 some revisions had already been made to the Register since the Committee last met and the report concentrated on those issues.  The Head of Internal Audit and Risk also referred to Appendix B to the report which set out the Corporate Risk Management Strategy for 2015/16.  She advised the meeting of the following amendments to the text of the document:

Page 6, ‘What is Risk Management?’ – at the end of the second paragraph add the sentence “The Corporate Risk Management Strategy is designed to enable this.”

Pages 15 and 16, remove the ‘Draft’ watermark from Annex 1.

A Member referred to Strategic Risk STR0003 (‘Growth: a risk that failure to adopt a ‘sound’ Development Strategy and subsequently deliver the levels of housing, jobs or infrastructure proposed for growth and regeneration of the area in a planned way’) and queried whether the likelihood should not be higher than indicated on the Risk Register Matrix given that it had already occurred.   In response the Head of Internal Audit and Risk stated that this issue would be considered as part of the fundamental review.  Reference was then made to Strategic Risks STR0027 (‘Failure to adopt a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)’) and STR0027 (‘Failure to adhere to procurement rules’) and the comment passed that these had both already occurred.

A Member then queried whether the proposed shared use of legal services should not also be considered as a risk.  However, in response the Chief Finance Officer stated that external, independent, legal advice had been taken on the proposal and this mitigated any requirement for the proposal to be considered as a strategic risk.

A Member queried how the content of the Strategy was communicated through the Council given that the Strategy stated that all staff were responsible for the management of risk and should read, understand and follow the Strategy.  In response the Head of Internal Audit and Risk stated that notification to officers involved in the risk co-ordination group took place through the Council’s intranet and periodic training also took place.

NOTED

the strategic and operational risks facing Central Bedfordshire Council as set out in the Risk Register Dashboard attached at Appendix A to the report of the Chief Finance Officer.

RESOLVED

that the Corporate Risk Management Strategy 2015/16 be approved, adopted and countersigned by the Chairman of the Audit Committee subject to the following amendments:

Page 6, ‘What is Risk Management?’ – at the end of the second paragraph add the sentence “The Corporate Risk Management Strategy is designed to enable this.”

Pages 15 and 16, remove the ‘Draft’ watermark from Annex 1.