After consideration by the Audit and Standards Committee in July the Annual Governance Statement is now before Cabinet prior to final approval by Council.

Councillor Kam Kaur reminded Cabinet that the presentation of the Annual Governance Statement is an annual occurrence, The document had been presented to the Audit and Standards Committee in July and to the Council’s external auditors. It would be presented to Council in October.

Resolved:

That Cabinet endorses the 2019/20 Annual Governance Statement for submission to Council for approval.

The Report and appendices are attached.

Chris Norton (Strategy and Commissioning Manager – Treasury, Pension, Audit & Risk) introduced the report, highlighting that the document was in draft form and would not be finalised until its submission to Council in October 2020. He drew attention to the inclusion of information relating to the response of the Authority to coronavirus; this was present throughout the document in acknowledgement of the breadth of the implications of the pandemic. He advised that the report had been reviewed by an evaluation panel of senior officers prior to presentation to the Committee.

Councillor Gifford highlighted the importance of ensuring that the climate change agenda was not obscured by the urgency of the Authority’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Rob Powell (Strategic Director, Resources) advised that climate change was a key issue identified within the COVID-19 Recovery Plan and would be considered as part of the recommendations emerging from the recovery member working groups to Cabinet in September 2020.

Rob Powell advised that the Authority’s response to coronavirus, including new ways of working, was improved by initiatives that were already underway prior to lockdown; the crisis had accelerated the transformation process.

Grant Patterson (Grant Thornton) commented that the Annual Governance Statement covered the period up to publication of the Council’s accounts in September 2020; should the need arise the document should be updated of any significant developments during the interim period.

Resolved:

That the Committee

1)    Endorses the draft Annual Governance Statement at Appendix 1.

2)    Notes the revised AGS approval and publication timetable at Appendix 2 and the factors considered when determining any significant governance issues (Appendix 3).