Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor R Bagge.

Councillor N Thomas declared a personal interest in item 14, Farnham Park Sports Fields Charitable Trust update, as a member of the Leisure Board which discharged the Council’s responsibilities as corporate Trustee for the Trust.

Councillor L Clarke OBE declared a personal interest in relation to the general agenda as a member of the Buckinghamshire Local Government Pension Scheme.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 24^th February 2025.

The Chairman raised two points which Councillor S Wilson had identified in the previous minutes prior to the meeting. A question was raised during that meeting in respect of the reconciliation of reserves in the Statement of Accounts and the section 151 officer’s reports since the implementation of the unitary authority. Councillor Wilson had since met with the section 151 officer and deputy chief finance officer and a response had been issued.

It was also noted that Councillor Wilson had to leave the meeting after agenda item 6, as he had been asked to attend a meeting of the Senior Appointments and Pay Committee at the request of the Chief Executive.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 24^th February 2025 be approved as a correct record subject to the above amendments.

The Committee considered the audit plan and strategy for the auditing of the Council’s financial and pension fund accounts for 2024/25. The report was presented by Mr David Skinner, Director of Finance, Ms Fiona Jump, Deputy Chief Finance Officer, Ms Sarah Brown, Engagement Partner, KPMG (external auditor) and Mr Philip Kent, Engagement Senior Manager, KPMG (external auditor).

The Committee was advised that the council’s finance team had held several meetings with the external auditors to discuss the detail of the council’s procedures and systems. A handover had also taken place between the previous external auditors, Grant Thornton and the current external auditors, KPMG. A file review was also being arranged between the two.

Three significant audit risks had been identified during the audit planning, these were highlighted to members and were: the valuation of investment properties; management override of controls; and the risk around the valuations of post-retirement benefit obligations. Each of these areas were where minor errors could have a significant impact on the overall accounts. 

There were also two higher assessed risk areas which were: valuation of land and buildings; and recoverability of investments in and debt lent to subsidiaries and joint ventures.

The audit timetable could be seen at page 51 of the main agenda pack. Whilst the backstop date for this set of accounts was February 2026, the intention was to have the initial audit of accounts completed for reporting to the Committee in November 2025. This would allow further time to complete work on rebuilding assurance prior to the February 2026 backstop date. An updated audit plan and timetable would be presented to the Committee’s at its first meeting of 2025/26.

Points raised during discussion included:

• In terms of reaching a clean audit opinion, the Committee heard that it was difficult at this stage to have certainty as to when this would be until the audit work was underway, however it was not expected to be any earlier than 2026/27 given the disclaimed opinions of prior years’ audits.
• Revised standards for auditing schools had been introduced which meant that the audit would assess the significance of schools accounting figures against the council as a whole and the external auditor would then pick selected schools to undertake detailed audits, if deemed necessary. It was not expected that this would create significant additional work.
• Assurance was given that the external auditors had adequate resources to deliver the audit. KPMG would also audit NHS clients who had a tighter reporting deadline of the end of June, however there were members of the team who had no NHS clients to ensure that there would always be colleagues able to support Buckinghamshire. The majority of the audit planning would be completed prior to June for the council, whilst the main audit work would commence post June.
• In terms of data analytics and reviewing journals, it was confirmed that KPMG had specific software which broke journals down into manageable chunks and had the ability to focus on areas of greater risk.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Committee received a report which provided an update on the Internal Audit work being undertaken by the Business Assurance Team against the approved 2024/25 plan. Ms Maggie Gibb, Head of Business Assurance (& Chief Auditor) presented the report.

The 2024/25 Internal Audit Plan had been reviewed to identify the key audit activities to be delivered considering the priorities within the Directorates and working around any key service priorities.

The report provided an update on risk management work, internal audit activity and progress against the audit action tracker. Since the last meeting, the team had finalised 3 audits which would be presented in the confidential part of this meeting. There were 4 audit reports which were at draft stage and 11 audits at the fieldwork or scope development stage. Further, 2 Grant Verification Assurance Statements had been completed. At present, there were no overdue audit actions across the Directorates and 39 audit actions were in progress. For schools, there were 2 overdue actions out of 205, and 17 actions were in progress.

The Committee was advised that the partnerships audit had been deferred, as upon review it was not deemed a high-risk area, and resources had been directed elsewhere. An updated partnership framework was also in production so waiting on this to be established would make for a better-timed audit in the 2025/26 year.

A Member raised concern around contract management training uptake by officers, an update on the internal audit undertaken in late 2024 was due to be presented to the next meeting and would pick up on this point.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

Ms Maggie Gibb, Head of Business Assurance (& Chief Auditor), presented a report on the 2025/26 internal audit planning process which was underway. The Head of Business Assurance and the Audit, Assurance and Fraud Manager would be meeting with all senior management teams (Service Directors and their direct reports) for each directorate. A schedule of audits would then be developed and agreed with the senior leadership teams (Corporate and Service Directors). Once a draft plan was produced this would be presented to the Corporate Management Team and Corporate Governance and Assurance Board for agreement. The plan would then be presented to the Audit and Governance Committee for approval at the July 2025 meeting as part of the overall Business Assurance Strategy.

During Quarter 1, the final audits from the 2024/25 plan would be completed and all agreed management actions would be followed up for subsequent reporting to the Committee. Five deferred audits from 2024/25 would also be completed, these were noted on page 100 of the main agenda pack.

The school audit needs assessment would also be undertaken to shape the schools audit plan for the year, and Mazars would produce a rolling plan for IT audits which would both be included in the plan due to be presented in July 2025.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The Committee received a report which provided an update on the Risk Management Group meeting held on 10^th March 2025. At that meeting, the Risk Management Group considered the Communities Risk Register which was presented by the Corporate Director for Communities, Head of Strategy and Performance and the Head of Finance for Communities. Further, the Group also received an update on emerging risks, noting the process for identifying and considering risks as they emerged as well as receiving a verbal update on the progress of the new strategic risk register which would be presented to the Group at its first meeting of the new municipal year. It was clarified that within the revised strategic risk register, loss of key staff would remain a key risk.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The Committee considered the Annual Regulations of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and Communications Data report which was presented by Ms Lisa Marie Williams, Service Director for Law and Governance. The report provided oversight of the use of RIPA powers and policies which were part of the governance arrangements relating to the exercise of the Council’s functions.

The Committee was advised on the process for applying to use RIPA powers, these included application, review, granting and cancelling. There were two joint trading standards investigations with Surrey in 2022, these were not cancelled which was an error on the council’s side, they have since been cancelled and the investigatory powers had been updated. A slight amendment had been made to the policy to ensure that this did not happen again.  

RESOLVED:

1. That the report be noted.
2. That the updates to the Buckinghamshire Council Covert Surveillance Policy be approved and adopted.

The Committee considered a report which provided the six-monthly summary in relation to compliance with the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules (CPR’s), compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 as well as summarising waivers and breaches. The report covered the second and third quarter of the financial year 2024/25. A summary of contract waivers was contained within the report and there were no breaches to report since the last report to committee. Ms Shelley Prince, Service Director for Strategic Commissioning and Procurement presented the report and summarised the waivers as detailed within the report.

An update was provided to page 13 of the first supplementary agenda pack in that the waiver for the Strategic Flood Management Team which was noted as ‘in progress’ had now been resolved and issued with a low-risk rating.

The report also contained an update on procurement and contract management training and procurement legislation changes.

During discussion, points raised included:

• Clarification was provided on training uptake within the report, this training was on the new Procurement Act and had been targeted at contract managers who required the core training. The team was proactively going through each directorate providing updates to officers managing contracts. There was also a dedicated intranet page and communities of practice for relevant officers.
• In terms of any common themes leading to waivers being used, it was noted that further planning ahead was required to ensure contract managers understood the complexities to tenders and contracts and the phases that had to be completed. Timelines also needed to factor in the internal governance flightpath and input required from stakeholders, and the procurement team was working on this to support the reduction of waivers.
• The Committee welcomed that the underlying trend was positive, and the council was much better placed as an organisation moving forward and the improvements being put in place through the procurement and commissioning hub were evident. Members were also pleased to note that there had been no breaches to report in this period.
• It was noted that the report referred to local suppliers being given opportunity to bid for contracts where possible and it was queried how this worked in practice and how it was measured as it was recognised as being important for the Buckinghamshire economy. This would be reported back on to the Committee.

ACTION: Ms S Prince to provide detail on local suppliers being awarded contracts and how the team reviewed and measured this ambition.

• It was clarified that the procurement thresholds were set out in the contract procedure rules and these were not anticipated to change, however there was senior officer scrutiny factored in throughout the process, including cases where the contract value was below £25k.
• The Committee heard that work was underway with market providers to upskill them to put their best bid forward, with it recognised that a diverse market was positive.
• The Chairman noted the legislative requirement for the council to publish contracts over £5k and advised that upon review there did not appear to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Committee considered the latest action log as attached to the agenda pack and agreed that the following actions could be closed:

1. Statement of Accounts 2020/21 (2)

2. Work Programme

3. 23/24 Business Assurance Strategy (2)

4. Action Log (external audit report 22/23)

6 and 10. Farnham Park Sports Field Charitable Trust

8. Statement of Accounts 2021/22 (4)

9. 23/24 External Auditors Annual Report (2)

RESOLVED: That the action log be noted.

To be confirmed – expected July 2025.

To be confirmed once the 2025/26 calendar of meetings was approved.

To Resolve:

that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the paragraph indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

RESOLVED: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the paragraph indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

To approve as a correct record the confidential minutes of the meeting held on 24^th February 2025.

RESOLVED: That the confidential minutes of the meeting held on 24 February 2025 be approved as a correct record.

The Committee received a confidential update on the future operating arrangements of the Farnham Park Sports Fields Charitable Trust. The update was presented by Mr Richard Barker, Corporate Director for Communities and Ms Sophie Payne, Service Director for Culture, Sport and Leisure. The Committee held a detailed discussion on the progress of work underway to improve the financial sustainability of the trust and how leasing arrangements were being progressed.

RESOLVED:

That the update be noted.

The Committee considered a summary of completed audits which included details on recently issued reports and the latest Audit Actions Tracker. The Committee held a detailed discussion on the contents of the paper.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The Committee considered a progress report following the Business Assurance Internal audit on property and reactive maintenance presented by Mr Richard Barker, Corporate Director for Communities and Ms Amy Bridgford, Service Director for Corporate Property & Assets. A detailed discussion was held by the committee which covered actions taken and work planned.

RESOLVED:

That the report and ongoing management actions be noted.

The Committee considered the confidential action log and

RESOLVED:

That the current Action Log (confidential) be noted.