Agenda item

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The Head of Internal Audit presented the report.

The Chair thanked the Head of Internal Audit for the report on the internal audit plan 2025/2026 and invited questions and comments from the Committee, a summary which is set out below.

Councillor de Winton referred to page 63 of the report and sought clarification on staffing arrangements following vacancies after mid-April.

The Head of Internal Audit confirmed resource within the team was being considered and the Council was part of the Consortium and if needed contractors from  used by the Consortium could be used and value for money would be considered.

Councillor de Winton brought page 68 to the Committee’s attention and requested an update on the progress of procurement.

Portfolio Holder, Councillor Morley confirmed the procurement processes were being reviewed and a new system was being put in place.

In response to Councillor Bearshaw’s question, the Head of Internal Audit confirmed the essential and high-risk audits would be carried out along with the majority of the medium’s risks. She advised the low risks were not guaranteed to be carried out in 2025/2026. Actual days would be unknown until the detail of the scope was confirmed.

Councillor Bearshaw asked if the recommendations which were still outstanding were considered when categorising the risk of audits into high, medium and low.

The Head of Internal Audit commented the recommendations were not considered as the audits were based on risks however if the scope crossed over with any recommendations, then they would be picked up in the audit.

Councillor Devulapalli sought clarification on the strategic housing audit and the risk of climate change.

The Head of Internal Audit advised the delivery of the strategies such as the Local Plan and Strategic Housing would be audited not the development of the strategy. She commented climate change could be considered when looking at the scope

The Monitoring Officer confirmed the Local Plan was due to be debated at Council at the end of March 2025. She commented the Assistant Director for Planning would be able to provide information on the environmental and climate change aspect on the current local plan which was about to adopted.

The Senior Internal Auditor confirmed a review of the global internal audit’s standard was taking place to include a planning document which will outline what will be included in the audits such as environmental aspects.  Furthermore that other audits were included within the plan such as Climate Sustainability, Local Plan and other Planning audits would take this into account.

Councillor Devulapalli asked if the Queen Elizabeth Hospital be included as an area to be audited.

The Monitoring Officer confirmed external organisations were excluded from being audited by the Borough Council as per the terms of reference of Audit Committee. She advised representatives from the Hospital could be invited to a scrutiny panel. 

Councillor Long reminded the Committee the Hospital was scrutinised by the Norfolk Health and Overview Scrutiny Committee which the Borough Council has a representative on which could report back to Members.

Portfolio Holder, Councillor Morley echoed the comments made by Councillor Long. He referred to strategic housing and reminded the Committee of other strategies such as the Homelessness and Housing and re-fit programme. 

Councillor Devulapalli suggested the Hospital was a standing item for a scrutiny panel to monitor the development as it was an important to the community.

Councillor Bearshaw commented it could be included in the risk register how effective the Hospital’s quality management system was.

Portfolio Holder, Councillor Beales provided assurance to the Committee, that regular meetings are had with the Hospital to discuss matters and advised there would be an all-member briefing in due course about upcoming changes. 

RESOLVED: The Audit Committee reviewed and approved the Internal Audit Plan 2025/26 and Internal Audit Charter and Mandate