The Corporate Risk and Insurance Manager presented the report to the Committee.

19.20 Councillor Collins joined the meeting.

Councillor Raper queried whether due to the cutbacks specialist expertise from external consultants may be reduced and whether this will have an impact on risk and service delivery.

The Corporate Risk and Insurance Manager responded that there are capacity issues within the council and capacity issues in general will have an impact on delivery.

Councillor Liddiard noted that the rating for opportunities around digital has gone down to 6 from 9  ¾ .  

The Corporate Risk and Insurance Manager clarified that they would like to see opportunity ratings go up and risk go down. The opportunity for digital has reduced as the transformation plan has been scaled back to focus on the Improvement and Recovery Plan.

For the Property Owner Liability risk Councillor Raper enquired about the  progress on the work to finalise the Concerto system. The Corporate Risk and Insurance Manager responded that he was not in a position to provide the answer but would query with the responsible department and notify the Councillor of the response. 

Councillor Collins requested that officers expand on paragraph 7.1 on page 17.

The Assistant Director of Finance confirmed that as the S114 Notice is in place they are scaling back on transformation and digital. The S114 is supported by a panel process to review all expenditures. There is one panel for expenditure below £25,000 and one for expenditure over £25,000. They will be ensuring statutory services are met and looking at every penny that is spent. The Best Value Inspection will require the Council to transform areas such as governance and this range of actions will require additional short-term capacity.

Councillor Collins noted that flood risk was not mentioned on appendix 1.

The Corporate Risk and Insurance Manager clarified that the report concerns strategic corporate items. At a department level there would be a risk around flooding but that responsibility sits with the Emergency Planning Team.

Michael Dineen, AD for Investigation, Enforcement & Community Safety advised that he would make enquiries with the Emergency Planning Team with regards to the flooding item and notify the Councillor of the position.  

Councillor Collins raised that item 6 had been removed on the risk register.

The Corporate Risk and Insurance Manager responded that the Government paused the Care Reforms and therefore the risk has been removed from the register. However, at a department level they will continue to monitor this.

Councillor Ralph referred to page 29 and the Stanford-Le-Hope transport interchange, he commented that he understood contractors are not engaging.

The Assistant Director of Finance responded that this project sits within the Place Directorate and Mark Bradbury is the Director. There was a contractor in place but they arrived at a point where inflationary matters became significant. It is therefore being reviewed and options are being looked at as to how this can be delivered.

Councillor Thandi asked about the 20 million pounds the Government gave to Tilbury.

The Assistant Director of Finance clarified that the Tilbury Towns Fund was given 19 million pounds from the Department of Levelling Up. That money is ring-fenced.

Councillor Collins highlighted that there was no penalty clause in the A13 contract, he queried if these will be included in future contracts.

The Assistant Director of Finance confirmed that they have worked within the contract and there is a huge challenge due to inflationary factors and the contractors are not happy. There has been learning as to how the contract works. The Assistant Director of Finance raised his concerns as to whether the risks should be with Local Authorities when they still have to deliver other wider services.

RESOLVED:

1.1     That Standards and Audit Committee review and comment on the items and details contained in the Dashboard (Appendix 1).

1.2     That Standards and Audit Committee review and comment on the ‘In Focus’ report (Appendix 2), which highlights higher priority risks and opportunities identified by the review.

1.3      That Standards and Audit Committee note the position with regard to the Government Intervention outlined in 2.6 to 2.12 of the report and in particular the Best Value Inspection of the governance arrangements (including risk management) detailed under sections 2.6 and 2.12.

1.4     That Standards and Audit Committee note that the Strategic/Corporate Risk and Opportunity Register will be refreshed in this context in 2023/24.