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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Islington Town Hall, Upper Street, N1 2UD

Contact: Mary Green  020 7527 3005

Media

Items
No. Item

13.

Apologies for absence

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

14.

Declaration of substitute members

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

15.

Declarations of interest

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.

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

16.

Minutes of previous meeting pdf icon PDF 242 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 13 June 2022 be confirmed as a correct record and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

17.

Appointments to Pensions Board pdf icon PDF 169 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That Mike Calvert be appointed as a scheme member representative and Maggie Elliott as an employer representative to the Pensions Board, each for a period of three years.

18.

Review of Audit Committee Terms of Reference pdf icon PDF 335 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 

 

The following points were noted during discussion:

·       The current structure comprised two Committees: the Audit Committee and the Audit Advisory Committee. Under the current structure, the two Independent Members had voting rights on all advisory matters considered at the meeting of the Committees. The proposal that there be one Committee, to be known as the “Audit and Governance Committee” would help to simplify matters. However, the view was that the inclusion of the word “Risk” in the new title of the Committee would better reflect its work

·       On the question of whether the Independent Members on the Committee should be entitled to vote, the Committee Services Manager reported that a survey across a number of other London boroughs whose membership included Independent Members, indicated that the position was that they were not entitled to vote.

·       Under the new arrangements, the two Independent Members would be able to vote on the “Monitoring Functions” listed in the revised Terms of Reference.

·       The Committee acknowledged the value in which the advice of the Independent Members was held

 

RESOLVED:

(a) That the word “Risk” be included in the new title of the Committee.

(b) That all instances of the word “Our” in the proposed new Terms of Reference be replaced with the article “The”

(c) That, subject to the incorporation of the suggested amendments above, the proposed amendments to the Audit Committee Terms of Reference, detailed in the report of the Corporate Director of Resources, be noted.

(d) That it be noted that any amendments would require formal approval at a future Council meeting.

(e) That, before the final report is submitted to Council, the updated Terms of Reference be circulated to members of the Committee for further review and approval

(f) That it be noted that the Committee’s future work plan would be reviewed by officers and the Chair to ensure that all aspects of the Terms of Reference were appropriately represented.

(g)  That it be noted that the Terms of Reference of the Pensions Sub-Committee and Personnel Sub-Committee would also be reviewed and submitted to a future meeting for consideration.

19.

Risk Deep-Dive: Volatility in the energy market pdf icon PDF 330 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Corporate Director Environment, the Energy Sustainability and Consulting Manager and the Head of Economic Development Projects and Transport Planning, attended to discuss the risk management strategy for the principal risk of “Volatility in the energy market”.

 

The following points were noted during discussion:

·                The Council currently purchased its energy directly from the market via a contract with SSE. Prior to the current energy contract being awarded in 2020, a procurement strategy was approved by Executive in January 2019, which considered the options of continuing to buy directly (via a contract) or to purchase energy via a Public Buying Organisation (PBO). However, the decision was to continue buying in-house due to a range of factors, including the flexibility offered and the lack of control over timing of purchasing and fees that using a PBO would incur.

·                The Council later procured an energy supply contract with SSE for the 2020–2024 period. The contract was not for supply at a specified price but allowed the Council to purchase through SSE via trades at the time of its choosing. The Council could purchase an entire year’s supply in a single trade but could also purchase for longer or shorter periods.  The Council was able to make a trade for a full year ahead at some point prior to the start of the financial year, to give budget certainty, with the aim being to purchase during a dip in prices.

·       Whilst the energy market was stable, the strategy on purchasing energy worked well. However, increasing prices and significant volatility from September 2021 onwards meant that the approach of waiting for prices to dip was not possible prior to the start of the 2022/23 financial year.

With a view to mitigating costs for this and future years, a first priority was identified as fixing prices and reducing costs for 2022/23, while the second was to reduce exposure to future price rises

·       An energy consultancy firm had been appointed to advise the Council on energy purchasing and a risk management strategy was produced to advise the Council on the timing of making trades in order to hedge against future increases in energy and to take advantage of rises and falls in the markets. Market prices were monitored on a daily basis.

·       With a view to reducing energy consumption across the Council, webinars were held for site managers to inform them on how to reduce energy use

·       On mitigating costs for 2023/24, the possibility of joining a Public Buying Organisation (PBO) was considered, alongside the mutual termination of the contract with SSE in order to join a PBO for up to two years.  There could be a reduction in costs to the Council of over £10m

·       Members suggested that, although it was not possible to control the energy market, it should be possible for the Council to control energy costs. For example, in the medium term, would it be possible to look at communal heating and windows in buildings such as the Town Hall?   The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

20.

Internal Audit Annual Report 2021-22 pdf icon PDF 139 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 

In response to questions from Members of the Committee as to whether Internal Audit was satisfied that responses to “limited assurance” to follow-up outcomes in Appendix 3 of the report were being taken seriously, the Audit Manager confirmed that a couple of the actions had been completed in the past month and that there were no particular areas of concern related to the actions in the Appendix.

 

Although the Audit Manager reported that there were no issues associated with the red-rated actions in Appendix 1 of the report and that dates for follow-ups had not yet been set,  Members of the Committee suggested that it would have been helpful to have follow up information on each of those actions.

 

A suggestion was made that the Controls Board could refer particular areas of concern to the Committee for a deep dive review, if it was considered appropriate.

 

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the report of the Corporate Director of Resources, detailing the outcomes of the delivery of the 2021/22 Audit Plan, be noted.

21.

Annual Fraud report 21/22 pdf icon PDF 87 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC

In view of the fact that the Committee were to discuss the exempt appendices alongside their accompanying non-exempt reports in respect of agenda items B3 and B4, it was

 

RESOLVED:

That the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following items as the presence of members of the public and press would result in the disclosure of exempt information within the terms of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, for the reasons indicated:

 

Agenda item F1

Title

Reasons for exemption

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agenda item F2 

2021-22 Annual Fraud Report  - exempt appendix

 

 

Bi-annual Whistleblowing Monitoring Report –

1 February 2022 to 31 July 2022 - exempt appendix

 

Categories 1, 2 and 7 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972

 

Categories 2, 3 and 7 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972

 

 

 

 

RESOLVED:

(a) That the contents of the report of the Corporate Director of Resources, detailing the work undertaken by Internal Audit (Investigations), Housing Investigations and Parking Investigations on their counter-fraud activities, be noted.

(b) That the mitigations taken to ensure that certain breaches/frauds do not happen in the future, detailed in the exempt appendix to the report, be noted.

(c) That the contents of the accompanying exempt appendix at agenda item F1 be noted.

 

 

22.

Bi-annual Whistleblowing monitoring report – 1 March 2022 to 31 July 2022 pdf icon PDF 89 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

(a) That the contents of the report of the Corporate Director of Resources, detailing the bi-annual whistleblowing monitoring arrangements, be noted.

(b) That a mechanism be established to report to members (possibly the Executive or the Audit Committee as part of the regular Whistleblowing Monitoring report) significant findings against the Council in Employment Tribunals and any settlements in excess of £50,000.

(c) That the contents of the accompanying exempt appendix at agenda item F2 be noted.

23.

Settlement protocol: employment disputes pdf icon PDF 148 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

(a) That the “Statutory Guidance in the making and disclosure of Special Severance Payments by local authorities in England” (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities), appended to the report of the Corporate Director of Resources, be noted.

(b) That the Council’s “Settlement Protocol: Employment Disputes”, also appended to the report of the Corporate Director of Resources, be approved.

24.

Annual Fraud report 21/22 - exempt appendix

Minutes:

Noted.

25.

Bi-annual Whistleblowing monitoring report – 1st March 2022 to 31st July 2022 - exempt item

Minutes:

Noted.

26.

Any other business

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Appointment of Audit Manager (Investigations)

Although not present at this meeting, on behalf of the Committee, the Chair congratulated Holly Braisher on her appointment as the Council’s new Audit Manager, with effect from 1 September 2022.