Agenda item

Members were informed of a minor amendment to item 5d on page 83 of the report which should have read “making on sound decisions”.

Members then queried as to whether it was acceptable that Finance and Audit could be combined into a single meeting as they are usually separate committees, and this is seen as best practice because the role of audit is to provide assurance that the financial management system is working and was it compliant with CIPFA rules?

The Authority Solicitor & Monitoring Officer informed Members that  approval of the budget and the capital programme are specifically reserved to the Full Authority and that was in the Terms of Reference and it was that Committee that scrutinised those finances.

The Head of Resources confirmed that there is a group of Members that sit on the Audit, Budget and Project Risk Monitoring Group which is not a Committee.  The only difference is that the Authority is pulling that group of Members into a Committee process so that it is all full and open and transparent, so there will be no difference, it is just putting it into a different system of working. 

The Chair asked both the Internal and External Auditors whether there was or wasn’t a problem with Members sitting on both Committees and was there anything from their perspective that caused concern?  The Auditors asked to reserve judgement on this as they would need to look into the CIPFA guidance further and report back.

The Chair of P&R confirmed that the recommendations and the amendments was to ensure we have better Member scrutiny in key areas  and  not wasting everybody’s time by having more meetings than was needed  for both Officers and Members. The programmes element of the P&R Committee was to ensure that it was aligned to the four management aims and that they’re things that all Members should know about.   The Governance Working Group worked with Officers to  came up with a set of proposals to put  a more coherent resource into the Resources Committee., which will mean that there will be a greater number of people to scrutinise the finance and audit elements before bringing a recommendation to be approved by Full Authority.

Members agreed to support the recommendation, and to look at this again if the Auditors come back to Officers after checking the CIPFA guidance.

The recommendations as set out in the report was moved, seconded, voted on and carried.

RESOLVED:

1.     That the Resources Committee Terms of Reference in Appendix 1 are approved.

2.     That the Resources (Hearing) Sub-Committee Terms of Reference at Appendix 2 are approved.

3.     That the Planning Committee Terms of Reference at Appendix 3 are approved.

4.     That the matters specifically reserved to be exercised by a meeting of the full Authority at Appendix 4 are approved.

5.     That authority be delegated to the Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Chair of the Authority, to make the required amendments to Standing Orders to bring recommendations 1, 2 and 3 above into effect.

6.     That authority be delegated to the Monitoring Officer to allocate Members to the Resources (Hearing) Sub-Committee as and when required.

7.     That dates for the Resources Committee meetings, at Appendix 5, and appointments to the Resources Committee will be made at the July 2025 Annual General Meeting are noted.

8.     That the proposal to convene additional Member Forum meetings to be held virtually as required throughout the year is agreed.