Issue - meetings

To receive and comment on a report setting out the Council’s draft Annual Corporate Governance Statement.

The Committee considered a report setting out the draft Annual Corporate Governance Statement 2015/16.

There was a statutory requirement for the Council to produce an Annual Corporate Governance statement which reviewed the effectiveness of the Council’s control systems and formed part of the final accounts for each financial year.  The Statement set out the governance arrangements in place at the Council, addressed any key issues identified during the year and summarised progress made towards addressing any previously identified issues.

It was reported that the Council’s Monitoring Officer and Section 151 Officer considered the Council’s governance arrangements to be adequate and effective.  Whilst no significant governance issues had been identified in 2015/16 a number of minor issues had been identified including the number of complex projects that the Council was involved with that were dependent on partnership working and these were being monitored through the planned work of the Council.

It was noted that the number of members on the Audit and Standards Committee was seven and not the fifteen stated in the Statement and this would be amended.

It was acknowledged that although there was a high level of awareness about data protection the implementation of an online training package had not gone as smoothly as had been anticipated and a number of Council staff still needed to complete mandatory data protection training.  It was agreed that a detailed report on data protection training would be brought to the Committee’s next meeting.

RESOLVED  that subject to the amendments noted the draft Annual Governance Statement be approved for sign off by the Council’s Leader and Chief Executive.