Agenda item

The report which gave details of the Internal Auditors recommendations for the second block of the 2022/23 audit and the agreed actions for consideration, was presented by Ian Morton of Veritau..

Members requested that the following matters arising from the report, be considered for further attention in the next years audit:

• Review of Staff Appraisals.
• Monitoring and Enforcement in the Planning Service

Members noted the report’s recommendation that appeal decisions should be reviewed by committee but felt that the current practice where this was done by Officers rather than Members, unless significant issues arose from a particular decision, should continue.

Members requested further clarification of the Substantial Assurance given to the Planning Service, and were advised that this was due to a reasonable plan being in place to address known issues in the Service.  The Head of Planning advised that the subject of the audit had been systems and controls such as registration of applications, validation, and payments rather than the time taken to determine applications.

A motion to approve the recommendation was proposed, seconded, voted on and carried.

RESOLVED

To receive and agree the actions in the Internal Audit reports for the three areas covered under Block 2 for 2022/23 Human Resources, Contract Management and Planning (set out in appendices 1-3 of the report).