Agenda item

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The Corporate Performance Manager presented the report which set out the changes to the Corporate Risk Register since the last monitoring report to the 16 June 2021 committee meeting.  It gave details of the risks falling into the ‘Very High’ category and the associated work being progressed to mitigate the effects.

It was noted that the Corporate Risk Register was reviewed every 6 months by the Management Team.

The Corporate Performance Manager explained that Covid-19 had continued to have a significant impact upon the council’s operating environment.  It was highlighted that the Council was focused on delivering its Covid-19 recovery strategy and its response, normalisation and recovery work had had an impact upon all areas of its activities in addition to wider impacts upon the borough.

The Committee’s attention was drawn to the key issues set out in the report and the Corporate Performance Manager outlined the reasons for the proposed changes.

It was explained that introduction of specific actions in the Risk Register was a change in reporting for this particular report and would carry on in future reports, incorporating actions which helped make the Register a management tool and a means of driving improvement and resilience for effectively dealing with risk management.

The Corporate Performance Manager/Assistant Director, Services responded to comments and questions in relation to:

·         National Fuel shortage October 2020 – clarification given on business continuity arrangements and entry/explanation within the Risk Register.

·         Appendix 1:  1.7 Staffing levels and actions appropriate to retain staff and whether a risk should be added regarding staff retention levels to mitigate the risk. 

·         Appendix 1:  1.12 Financial Plan may be adversely affected:  Reference was made to S31 Grant provided to offset shortfall in income and whether there was an opportunity to obtain more grants for the delivery of statutory services if there were budget shortfalls.

·         Appendix 1:  1.20 Virus results in national and local measures to contain outbreak with consequences for commercial services, service delivery and staff/member well-being – reduced funding being available and text to be reviewed.  The Corporate Performance Manager explained that over the coming weeks when the document was reviewed it was anticipated that there would be a re-write of some of the content.

·         Explanation of colour coding.

·         Appendix 1: 2.1 The ability to attract new investment could be adversely affected by potential barriers in the local economy such as availability of premises, levels of skills in the workforce and related low value work.  No active involvement of the New Anglia LEP/Cambridge – this needed to be checked and risk mitigation actions with the Enterprise Zone to check progress being made.  The Assistant Director, Resourced noted the comments and advised that she would be looking to undertake a review.

·         Scoring of risks with regard to the projects listed – carbon emissions, cost reduction programme.

The Chair thanked the Corporate Performance Manager for presenting the report.

RESOLVED:  The Committee considered the contents of the Corporate Risk Register and confirmed agreement with Management Team’s assessment of the risks to the corporate business plan/Covid-19 recovery strategy.