Issue - meetings

The Committee is asked to endorse the Draft 2022/23 Annual Governance Statement for onward consideration by the Council’s External Auditor.

The Chair introduced the report which outlined the Draft 2022/23 Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for consideration.

Robert Zara highlighted the duplication of wording on page 169 of the report pack which could be amended.

Chris Norton, Strategy & Commissioning Manager (Treasury, Pensions, Audit, Risk & Insurance), outlined the report and highlighted some of the key issues including the decreasing reference to Covid, how the governance principles were informed by the panel.  He also advised that the report had received input from the Assistant Directors and drew members attention to the sections of the report that demonstrated the differences.  Following a question relating to other Local Authorities AGS’s, Chris Norton explained that whilst there would always be similarities, the Council operated to its own corporate Code of Governance.

Avtar Sohal explained that CIPFA had a framework of good governance practices and, whilst the themes were similar, each authority would have different answers to reflect their differing practices.

In response to a query regarding standardisation, officers confirmed that the County Council worked to the national CIPFA standards in line with our own governance practices.  It was noted that if compared, the Council did an exceptionally good job, with the strategic objectives as drivers and Council’s priorities reviewed periodically. 

The Chair agreed that this was what distinguished Warwickshire County Council from other authorities.

Resolved that the Draft 2022/23 Annual Governance Statement, attached at Appendix 1, is endorsed for onward consideration by the Council’s External Auditor.