Agendas, reports and minutes

A meeting of the Audit and Scrutiny Committee will take place REMOTELY on Wednesday, 31 March 2021 at 10.30am.

Webcast Notice: This meeting will be filmed and broadcast over the Internet on the Highland Council website and will be archived and available for viewing for 12 months thereafter.

You are invited to attend the meeting and a note of the business to be considered is attached.

Yours faithfully

Stewart Fraser
Head of Corporate Governance 

Business 

1. Apologies for Absence
Leisgeulan

2. Declarations of Interest
Foillseachaidhean Com-pàirt

Members are asked to consider whether they have an interest to declare in relation to any item on the agenda for this meeting. Any Member making a declaration of interest should indicate whether it is a financial or non-financial interest and include some information on the nature of the interest. Advice may be sought from Officers prior to the meeting taking place.

3. External Audit Reports
Aithisgean Sgrùdaidh bhon Taobh A-muigh

The following summarises the external audit reports prepared by the Council’s External Auditors (Grant Thornton) issued since the last Audit and Scrutiny Committee:-

a) Draft External Audit Plan for 2020/21

The Committee is invited to note the terms of the report.

4. Internal Audit Reviews and Progress Report
Ath-bhreithneachaidhean In-sgrùdaidh agus Aithisg Adhartais

There is circulated Report No. AS/3/21 dated 19 March 2021 by the Corporate Audit Manager which summarises the final reports issued since the date of the last meeting, together with details of work in progress and other information relevant to the operation of the Internal Audit Section as follows:-

• Education & Learning - Payment of Relief Staff (Reasonable Assurance); and 
• Infrastructure & Environment – Review of Covid-19 Grants (Reasonable Assurance).

The Committee is invited to:-

i.   consider the Final Reports referred to in Section 4.1 of the report;
ii.  note the current work of the Internal Audit Section outlined at section 5 of the report, details of progress against the 2020/21 audit plan at Appendix 1 and that work in progress or not started will be carried forward into the next year;
iii. note a limitation of scope will be provided within the 2020/21 annual audit opinion with regard to the aspect of internal control.  The suggested wording provided by CIPFA (see Appendix 2) will be used within the annual report and for the annual governance statement; and
iv.  note that the normal audit planning process will commence later than usual with the aim of producing the 2021/22 audit plan for approval by the Audit & Scrutiny Committee on 17/06/21.
    
5. Review of Corporate Risks
Ath-Sgrùdaidh air Cunnartan Corporra

There is circulated Report No. AS/4/21 dated 10 March, 2021 by the Corporate Audit and Performance Manager.

The Committee is invited to:-

i.   approve the revised Corporate Risk Management Strategy at Appendix 1 of the report;
ii.  scrutinise the Corporate Risk Register provided at Appendix 2 and consider the risk profile at Appendix 3 of the report; and
iii. note that, following the review of the Corporate Risk Strategy, reviews of the Corporate Risk Register will be reported to every Audit and Scrutiny Committee.