Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor David Poyser.

None.

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

*(a)     Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b) Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c) Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d) Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e) Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f) Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

None.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting of the Audit Committee and the Audit Committee (Advisory) held on the 29 January 2015 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

The Committee noted that the statistics regarding the number of residents who had been prevented from registering were not yet available from the software.  The Head of Registration and Electoral Services had asked if this could be made available but this was unlikely to be obtained prior to the election.  This information could be reported to a future meeting when available.

Members asked to be informed regarding the designation of the polling place for St Peter’s ward.

a)           External Audit Plan

The Committee noted that it was expected that the audit fee may reduce in the future but any reduction in fees would not affect the way that the audit was carried out and issued.  The value of the external audit was over 1000 staff hours but was not quantified in the plan.  At the expiry of the contract with KPMG, it was expected external auditors would be appointed by an independent panel.

b)           Certification of Claims and Returns – Annual Report 2013/14

The Committee noted that the certification of claims and returns did not result in any areas of concern that would have resulted in a change in subsidy. 

RESOLVED that the reports be noted.

The Committee noted that a member of staff would be dedicating 180 days to fraud support, in addition to the 55 days detailed in the Audit Plan. The monitoring of spending on agency staff had been added to the Internal Audit workplan for 2015/16, Quarter 2.

The risk assessment framework was a useful tool when considering the scope of the work undertaken by Internal Audit team.  The workplans of the Scrutiny Committees would need to be checked in order to ensure that there was no overlap of work.

RESOLVED

That the report be noted and the Annual Internal Audit Plan for 2015/16 be approved.

Councillor Olly Parker took the Chair for this item as Councillor Richard Greening was the Chair of the Pension Sub-Committee.

RESOLVED that

a)     the nomination process undertaken be noted;

b)     the employer representatives on the Pension Board shall include an Islington Councillor or officer to be appointed at Annual Council.

c)     The following members be appointed for a term of three or four years or until a successor is appointed:-

Vaughan West, GMB as a member representative,

Mike Calvert, Unison, as a member representative,

David Bennett, as an independent member,

Bob Anderson as an employer representative,

Maggie Elliot, as an employer representative.

d)     Vaughan West be appointed as Chair of the Pension Board, subject to his agreement.