Agenda item

The Committee received the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for 2022/23 which was presented by Mr Glenn Watson, Principal Governance Officer. The Committee was advised that the purpose of an AGS was to comment on the effectiveness of a council’s governance arrangements for the year in question. An AGS should be public facing. Guidance issued by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) noted that the AGS should be high level, strategic, meaningful and brief. It should be written in an open and readable style.

The AGS must be published alongside the Statement of Accounts and should reflect the governance in the year just concluded. The AGS was normally prepared alongside the timeline for producing the Statement of Accounts. While the Council’s Accounts for 2022/23 are not scheduled to be completed during this year, the Council’s External Auditors need to see an agreed version of an Annual Governance Statement during the preparation of their assessment.

An AGS should contain an Opinion as to the effectiveness of the governance arrangements, signed by the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council. This draft AGS contains such an Opinion for 2022/23 based on the assurances contained within it: “The Council’s governance arrangements in 2022/23 were sound and provide a robust and effective platform for achieving the Council’s priorities and challenges in 2023/24.”

Members of the Committee during 2022/23 were invited to submit their views on the key areas of governance during that year and on any areas of preferred focus for 2023/24. Comments received had been reflected in the draft which complied with CIPFA guidance. The draft also reflected various annual, and other, reports prepared for Council, Cabinet and Committees which related to aspects of governance during 2022/23 as noted in the covering report.

The Committee was of the view last year that the final version of this year’s AGS should receive a design in keeping with the Council’s other publications. This was in hand. The Council’s Design Team would accordingly create a design for the approved or revised content. A separate non-statutory Code of Governance, evidencing the Council’s governance arrangements, was being prepared for consideration by the Committee at its next meeting.

Points raised during discussion included:

·       A Member requested that the AGS be checked through for consistency in its references to the Senior Management Team and Statutory Officers. It was also requested that within references to Community Boards and High Wycombe Town Committee, unparished areas should be mentioned.

·       On page 41 of the reports pack, it was requested that under ‘where do we get assurance from?’, the Standards and General Purposes Committee also be included. Further, on page 45 of the reports pack, it was noted that the team had completed 19 grant assurance reviews or claims verifications and it was asked that how many this figure was out of also be referenced.

·       A Member requested that further detail on how the Council’s subsidiary companies were managed be included within the AGS along with ensuring the names of the companies were included and clear.

·       The Committee discussed whether reference should be included to note that Buckinghamshire Council’s Select Committee Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen were all from the ruling political party. It was also discussed whether the appropriate role of scrutiny, in terms of checking and challenging decisions should be included in the AGS. The Chairman noted that the Principal Governance Officer would need to be careful in covering these areas within the AGS as the document focused on 2022/23 and not the current position, the document would need to remain politically impartial.

·   A Member requested that the second paragraph on page 47 of the reports pack by given further thought, as the training statistics were difficult to fully understand without the context of how many the staff figures were out of. It was also questioned whether the paragraph on the Monarchy was required in the AGS.

·   A Member noted that a key responsibility of the Council was to carry out its statutory obligations in the most efficient, cost-effective way and queried whether this should be included within the introductory section as a key priority.

·   Within the action plan, the Committee challenged whether the Communities and Localism Select Committee was the right Committee to deal with the Community Board review, particularly the governance risk around the dispersal of funds to Community Boards and it was requested that this be reviewed.

·   The Committee also noted that the Corporate Director for Children’s Services had been assigned several actions and queried the timeline and how these would be managed.

·   Within the action on Community Governance Reviews it was requested that the fourth bullet point be amended to include reference to local Councillors. A suggestion was also made to add a further bullet point to understand Buckinghamshire Council’s commitment to the Community Governance Reviews.

ACTION: Mr G Watson to produce an updated version of the AGS, in the latest design format taking into consideration all of the above points. This draft was to be circulated in advance of the next Committee meeting, with the intention of the AGS being signed off at that meeting.

RESOLVED:

That the draft Annual Governance Statement 2022/23 be noted and was to be presented at the next Committee meeting in September 2023 subject to further amendments being made based on the comments raised above.