Issue - meetings

(Director of Governance) To consider the attached report (AGC-015-2016/17).

The Director of Governance presented a report on the revised Code of Corporate Governance.

The Director reported that the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA) and Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (Solace) had published the CIPFA/LASAAC Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom for 2016/17, which was a new framework for Corporate Governance which would apply from this year. The Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 also required an authority to conduct a review at least once in a year of the effectiveness of its system of internal control and include a statement reporting on the review with any published Statement of Accounts. For a local authority in England, this statement was the Annual Governance Statement and local authorities in England were required to provide this statement from this year in accordance with “Delivering Good Governance in Local Government: Framework (2016)”. The overall aim of the Framework was to ensure that:

         (a)          resources were directed in accordance with agreed policy and according to          priorities;

         (b)          there was sound and inclusive decision making; and

         (c)          there was clear accountability for the use of those resources in order to achieve            desired outcomes for service users and communities.

The Director stated that Officers had undertaken a review exercise of its current governance arrangements against a series of seven principles set out at paragraph 6 of the report. Each Principle had a series of sub-principles against which the proposed new code had been matched. The final draft document had been attached for approval, and was required to be adopted before April 2017. The next Annual Governance Statement (due in June) would then need to relate to the new framework and demonstrate how the requirements of the framework were met. Therefore, the structure of the Annual Governance Statement would change. The Committee was requested to approve the revised Code of Corporate Governance.

The Vice-Chairman queried the use of the word ‘Social’ in point (iii) of paragraph (6). The Director clarified that the word ‘Social’ had a broader definition in this context; the Council was not responsible for providing social services, but it could partner with other organisations to produce social benefits for the benefit of the District. The Chairman highlighted that section 3 of the draft Code of Governance provided more detail in terms of potential social benefits.

Decision:

(1)        That the draft revised Code of Corporate Governance be approved and subject to an annual review by the Committee.