The Director of Finance will submit Document “B” which sets out the requirement to conduct the annual review of the effectiveness of the Council’s governance framework and system of internal control.  It reports the conclusions of that review and produces the Annual Governance Statement for 2018-19 to accompany the Council’s Statement of Accounts.

Recommended-

That the Committee authorises the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive to sign the document, on behalf of the Council, to accompany the Statement of Accounts 2018-19.

                                                            (Mark St Romaine – 01274 432888)

The Director of Finance submitted Document “B” which set out the requirement to conduct the annual review of the effectiveness of the Council’s governance framework and system of internal control.  It reported the conclusions of that review and produced the Annual Governance Statement for 2018-19 to accompany the Council’s Statement of Accounts.

It was reported that a number of governance challenges previously recognised by the Council had been resolved or progressed during 2018/19.  This included the LGA Peer Review, the Council’s Consultation processes, the Internal Audit Peer Review, Procurement arrangements and council core systems .These were explored in greater depth in the accompanying Annual Governance Statement, presented in full at Appendix 1 to Document “B”.

Members were informed that governance issues in respect of the Ofsted review,  the integration of health and social care systems and the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulations, which were highlighted in 2018/19 and would continue to be monitored in 2019/20.  There were no new governance issues raised for 2019/20 which had not been previously identified.

It was reported that Council was also responsible for the financial and management arrangements of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund and a separate assessment of the adequacy of these arrangements was also required. The internal arrangements in place to provide the Council with the necessary assurance were detailed at section 6.1 of the report.

In response to a Members question it was reported that the Service was not aware of any risks relating to IT and that business continuity risk would incorporate any such risk which would be managed.

It was reported that both the Corporate Management Team and the Council’s Executive received quarterly updates on the Council’s Strategic Risks through the Council’s Finance and Performance reports. Risk registers had been established and updated for all Departments.  There had been two meetings of the Risk Co-ordinators group.   A revised Risk Strategy had been drafted and would be considered by CMT and the Executive in the summer. An internal audit completed on the Council’s Strategic Risk Register had assessed the control arrangements as good.

A Member considered that the General Data Protection Regulations were causing problems with information sharing.

Members were informed thatfollowing the implementation of the new data protection legislation (GDPR) in May 2018,  work had continued to ensure that internal processes, procedures, data systems and documentation were GDPR compliant. Advice and guidance for staff had been published on Bradnet and mandatory eLearning on protecting information provided for all appropriate staff.  Work was continuing in respect of monitoring GDPR compliance across all Departments of the Council and work continued with neighbouring authorities and other partners to share best practice.  Information could be shared with other agencies etc as long as there was consent in place.

Resolved-

That the Committee authorises the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive to sign the document (once any proposed changes reported at the 31 July meeting of the Committee are incorporated into the document), on behalf of the Council, to accompany the Statement of Accounts 2018-19.

Action:           Director of Finance