Audit & Governance Committee - Monday 5 October 2026, 4:00pm

Audit & Governance Committee
Monday, 5th October 2026 at 4:00pm

Speaking:

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Councillor Helene Mansilla

1 Apologies

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Tyler Jardine, Officer
Councillor Helene Mansilla

2 Substitute Members

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Tyler Jardine, Officer

3 Declarations of Interest

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Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla

4 Minutes

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Minutes Public Pack, 27/07/2026 Audit & Governance Committee

David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla

6 Member Questions

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Councillor Helene Mansilla

7 Audit and Governance Committee Work Plan

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Sep 26 A&G Forward Plan

Tyler Jardine, Officer
Tyler Jardine, Officer
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Tyler Jardine, Officer
Councillor Helene Mansilla

8 2026/27 Annual Governance Statement Action Plan - Update

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David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Jeremy Theyer
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Len Wilkins
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Ray Brassington
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Craig Thurling
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Nick Craxton
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Nick Craxton
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Craig Thurling
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Officer
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Len Wilkins
Officer
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Ray Brassington
Officer
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Ray Brassington
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Nick Bridges
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Craig Thurling
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Craig Thurling
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla

9 Internal Audit Progress Report - October

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Officer
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Officer
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla

10 Local Code of Corporate Governance

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Councillor Helene Mansilla
Nick Craxton
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Ray Brassington
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Nick Craxton
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Len Wilkins
Councillor Len Wilkins
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Len Wilkins
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla

11 Q1 Prudential Indicators (Treasury Management) 2026/27

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CDC Treasury Management Indicators 26_27 Qtr One

Councillor Helene Mansilla
Officer
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Craig Thurling
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Nick Craxton
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Craig Thurling
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Officer
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Jeremy Theyer
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Craig Thurling
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO

12 Procurement Action Plan - Follow-Up #2

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Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Craig Thurling
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Craig Thurling
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Officer
Councillor Helene Mansilla

13 Strategic Risk Register

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David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Len Wilkins
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Ray Brassington
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Craig Thurling
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Craig Thurling
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Nick Craxton
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Nick Craxton
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Len Wilkins
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Len Wilkins
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Craig Thurling
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Mike Evemy
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Craig Thurling
Councillor Helene Mansilla
David Stanley, Deputy CEO
Councillor Helene Mansilla
Councillor Mike Evemy
Councillor Helene Mansilla

14 Proposal to Appoint New Member of the Standards Hearings Sub-Committee

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15 Date of Next Meeting

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Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically generated, so it may contain errors. Please view the webcast to confirm whether the content is accurate.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:00:00

Good evening everyone. Welcome to this meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee. I welcome

members, officers and anyone joining us here in the chamber or online. This meeting has

been streamed live and all the papers are available on the Council's website. There

a three -hour limit. If necessary, members may vote to stand up by one further hour.

We have a full agenda, but I intend to finish within two hours. So I ask everyone to try

to keep questions and answers focused. I can see that there are no members of the public

present, so we will move on to the first item on the agenda.

Before I begin, I will take a moment to welcome and introduce Councillor Brasington, current

Vice Chair of the Council, former Chair and current member of the Gloucestershire Police

and Climate Panel, and former Chair and current member of the Planning Committee.

Councillor Brasington, welcome to the committee.

1 Apologies

Apologies. Let's begin with apologies. Any apologies today?

Tyler Jardine, Officer - 0:01:23

Thank you, Chair. Yes, we've had apologies from Councillor Paul Hodgkinson and

2 Substitute Members

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:01:31

Tyler Jardine, Officer - 0:01:37

independent person Christopher Bass. Thank you, Taylor. Any substitute? Yes, Chair.

So that would be Councillor Braddington serving for Councillor Hutchinson.

Thank you, Taylor.

3 Declarations of Interest

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:01:47

No servers in the room.

Next, are there any declarations of interest?

Thank you.

None noted.

4 Minutes

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:02:01

We have a set of minutes from the previous meeting to approve.

I will go through them page by page.

Please do interrupt me if you have any corrections.

Stay with me, I'm trying to locate the page, the printer pack.

Right, so page 5, any corrections?

Page 6.

Right.

So I do have a correction.

It's more of an addition.

No, it's a correction and an addition, actually, on items 87 on page 6.

The Minister said that senior officers reviewed the risk quarterly.

I understand that officers review the register every two months and the

quarterly comment refers to the Cabinet and to this committee. Can you confirm

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:03:17

David? Thank you chair. I can confirm that the corporate leadership team and the

extended management team do review every other month and then a quarterly report

is presented to Cabinet and to this committee.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:03:33

My next comment is regarding the Wellford incident or Wellford RAFR incident.

I'm sure the members will want to discuss the Wellford incident in more detail.

We will take that under the strategic risk register later in this meeting.

For now, I just want to add to the minutes that David made two comments that I don't

see reflected in the minutes.

One was that he was going to cheque whether the July threat to RAF Fairford had led to

changes in local emergency plans.

Second, he was going to obtain the Gloucestershire local resilience position and his plans for

informing residents.

We can talk about that later, David.

Thank you.

Next year.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:05:56

If we can introduce that under item 90, please.

Page 10.

Any comments on page 10?

Page 11, 12, 13, 14.

Right. So subject to those corrections, can members approve the July minutes as an accurate

record please. Show of hands please.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:07:30

I am pretty sure that that is the last thing I want to say.

something that democratic services can arrange for next.

Thank you.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:07:55

I am pretty sure the traffic was awful, as always.

Thank you.

Public questions.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:08:05

There is no public present in the room so we will move on to the member questions.

6 Member Questions

Any member questions today?

Thank you.

So no note.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:08:22

Moving on to Item 7, which is at page 15 of the virtual pack, and is on page 15 of the

printed pack as well, where it begins there, is the committee work plan for the period

7 Audit and Governance Committee Work Plan

1 August to 30 April 2027. Members are asked to review and approve the work plan. I note

that the counter plan update has been moved from October to December. However, the December

programme doesn't include the final audited accounts approval and a procurement plan closure.

Angela, I believe that you are with us online. Is that correct? Can you hear me?

That is correct, Chair. I can. Thank you, Angela. Could you briefly highlight any changes

and additions before bringing members, please? Thank you. Actually, I'm going to pass the

baton on, if you don't mind. I think my colleague, Tyler, will be able to pick up the changes

Tyler Jardine, Officer - 0:09:58

quicker than I can. Tyler, is that correct? Thank you, Angela. Well, I'm afraid I don't

a list of changes for the previous version of the file to hand. Give me one second, I

will pull it up for comparison. I think whilst Tyler's looking, Chair, if there's anything

on there that is obvious or an area of interest to both members and officers, it is an opportunity,

obviously it's your work programme, if there's anything that you would like to add, so much

of our agenda are the items that come round periodically and some of those are on the

agenda today. But it is there for you to add things on if you wish to. Tyler, did that

Tyler Jardine, Officer - 0:10:41

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:10:43

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:10:48

help buy you some time? Yes, it did. Thank you. Thank you. Would you like? I'm going

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:10:50

bring members in, in the meantime.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:10:54

Are there any comments or proposed additions from the members?

So as I said, we have from the December timetable, we are missing the final audited accounts

approval if you recall from last year and the procurement plan closure that is also

mentioned somewhere else in this agenda, in this pack today.

Is there anything else that members want to add or comment on tonight? Nothing

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:11:29

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:11:32

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:11:33

noted. Thank you chair. Just in terms of the work programme, so we I unfortunately

wasn't able to make a meeting with Bishop Fleming our external auditors

as Michelle Burge, the deputy section 151 did.

The intention is to have a closeout meeting

with Bishop Fleming within the next few weeks.

They've made steady progress with the audit.

So it wasn't until we had confirmation that last week

that we would then have the ability to add that

to the forward plan.

So that would be added to the forward plan

from this point going forward.

So it is part of December's meeting.

In terms of the procurement action plan,

There is a report on the agenda for tonight.

I wasn't recommending to members to bring another report

to the committee, more that it wouldn't be good timing

for members to close off or make a decision

around the procurement action plan in light

that Bishop Fleming is part of their audit.

We'll have a look at the VFM issues,

which includes the governance issue they raised last year.

So I was proposing that subject to Bishop Fleming's reporting through the

committee in December where you'll get the annual auditors report which will

cover that governance issue. Members could then make on the back of that

report a decision whether they're content to close rather than another

report coming forward.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:13:07

Thank you for that comment. Any comments that you want to make?

Tyler Jardine, Officer - 0:13:16

Nothing much further from what has already been said. I think David covered the update

reports perfectly well there. There are a couple additions to this committee's

agenda that weren't on the previous forward plan, most notably of which would

be changing the member of the Standards Hearings subcommittee, which I believe is

on the agenda for today. Beyond that, no, nothing for me to add.

Thank you.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:13:51

That is all.

8 2026/27 Annual Governance Statement Action Plan - Update

We are moving on to item 8 at the beginning of page 21, which is the annual Governance

Statement Action Plan for 2026 -2027, update number 1.

This is the first update on the Annual Governance Statement Action Plan for 2026 -2027.

The plan was agreed in July and the update, I presume, was finalised before the LGR post

and the Wellford incident.

Given the LGR post, we need to understand whether the financial forecast and savings plan allow for this Council continuing beyond March 2028, and whether the green ratings reflect that uncertainty.

Following the Wellford incident, we also need to know whether any changes are needed to

keep essential council services running and whether those lessons will be included before

the business continuity plans are approved this month.

Members are asked to note the plan update and I'm going to invite David and Angela

Director of Governance and Development, my apologies for before, to present the

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:15:30

report and address those points. Over to you. Thank you chair. So this is one of

your regular reports that you'll get in terms of how we as officers are

responding to the significant governance concerns that were outlined in the

annual governance statement. So an action plan was included in that, that covered

three areas, financial sustainability, business continuity and procurement. What this report

does is sets out using the format in Annex A of the red and the green in terms of whether

those actions are on target, particularly around financial sustainability, that is a

green. So when this was drafted in time for this meeting, Cabinet had received the Q1

financial performance report that indicated 122 ,000 net underspend projected for the year.

And I was current at the time and still drafting the budget strategy report that will be considered

by overview and scrutiny committee on the 12th and cabinet on the 15th. That report

will highlight that it is LGR decision agnostic, so we prepare the council's medium -term financial

plan and its financial strategy on a going concern basis. So whenever LGR is going to happen,

be that on the original planned time scale of the 1st of April 28th or if the government announces

is something else in due course,

our medium term financial plan will consider the council

still existing even if it doesn't exist,

if that makes any sense.

So my current assessment of that for the AGS update

is that remains on target.

Members will recall the February, 2026,

MTFS identified a budget gap for 27 -28 of 1 .488 million

million that increased the following year to just shy of two and a half million and

then increased in the last year of the MTFS period that was covered to around 7 .2 million

and that change from two and a half to 7 .2 is almost entirely down to the government's

current three year funding settlement period including four and a half million pounds of

income protection that I'm assuming drops away

in the new settlement period,

which is part of a new spending round for central government.

So in the absence of any other information,

I'm assuming that funding disappears,

hence that gap increases.

But currently where we are with that report

is that will be coming forward,

and I'm confident that that will endorse

the assessment that's made here

that we're on target for that.

In terms of business continuity, this was a rollover action

from the previous annual governance statement

and that was largely because the council had not completed

the business impact assessment process

and drawing up the business continuity plans

and testing them adequately for the services

the council is responsible for.

As indicated in annex A on page 27,

those business impact assessments have been completed.

business continuity plans have been drafted and the corporate leadership

team will be reviewing those plans the final batch of those during the current

month for formal sign -off so I'm content that that's on target and finally item

three is around procurement we have a separate agenda item covering the

procurement action plan but in particular around the significant

governance issue that was raised in the AGS. This was around the change in

legislation or the new legislation that was introduced around economic crime and

corporate transparency and the new corporate crime or corporate criminal

offence of failure to prevent fraud. So there's been some ongoing mandatory

training provided by the Counter Fraud Enforcement Unit for officers that will

be continuing at various locations across the partnership councils up until

February 2027 and we've been working on with Counter Fraud Enforcement Unit on

preparing a checklist. So I'm content that adequate steps have been taken to

address that new corporate criminal offence and to I suppose to mitigate

that risk. So I'm content with progress to date but happy to take any questions

members may have. Any questions?

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:20:11

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:20:17

Councillor Jeremy Theyer - 0:20:18

and Councillor Braithwaite. Thank you Chair. One's a nitpicker, the other two,

that's wrong. Page 2832 we're saying that the unitary authority will be established

on the 1st of April 28 which is that right or should it be hopefully or some

words saying that we're not absolutely certain that will be the date?

So in terms of the actual criminal offence under the Economic Crime and Transparency

Act, if the council doesn't have adequate measures in place to prevent someone committing

fraud, even if that fraud benefits the local authority, that would be of a concern.

That's been included in the updated counter -fraud

and enforcement policy updates to cabinet last month,

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:21:21

which included the updated anti -fraud and corruption policy

that made reference to that.

And it's certainly been part of the mandatory training

that the Counter Fraud Enforcement Unit

been rolling out to staff.

So I'm content that the council is addressing that,

but clearly there's a lot of work still to do

to ensure that remains front and centre. It's not one of those issues that you can tell

people about once and ensure it sticks. It's an ongoing piece of work that are called Counter

Fraud Enforcement Unit and off council officers will be communicating to all those staff involved

in procurement.

Councillor Len Wilkins - 0:22:01

Do you remind me what BIA stands for?

BIA stands for Business Impact Assessment.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:22:09

I am going to ask another acronym on procurement.

Councillor Ray Brassington - 0:22:15

We have a review of PO.

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:22:19

Councillor Turling.

Financial sustainability.

Councillor Craig Thurling - 0:22:31

The action is to identify and implement efficiency savings to close the budget gap and then to

be with a report due at cabinet mid -October and it says on target. Is that on target to

identify what those efficiency savings are to close the gap or is it on target to produce

the report for October?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:22:59

The former but also the latter would apply. So that report will be finalised tomorrow

had a publication on Wednesday for overview

and scrutiny committee and for cabinet on the 15th.

That report will outline how that 1 .5 million pound gap

that was identified in February 26 has been changed,

closed, there will be a number of factors

that will have influenced that both upward and downward.

Members will appreciate that in the report

that we provided for the out -turn for 2526 and in the Q1 monitoring we indicated that

car park income had remained above the budgeted level. But we've also been reporting that

the fuel price has been slightly higher than the budgeted estimate. So there will be a

number of changes but I'm content that adequate steps have been taken and will be included

in that report to close that gap.

But there will still be more work to do, as you would expect

me to say, as the Section 151 to ensure

that we can set a balanced budget come February 2027.

Nick.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:24:06

Nick Craxton - 0:24:08

I'm less close as an independent member.

Can you just confirm for me what is the impact

of the LGR announcements?

I guess what's known, what's unknown,

and what the potential scenarios are for CDC.

Thanks.

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:24:25

So on the 7th of September, if I get the date right,

the Secretary of State made a statement in the House

of Commons announcing an immediate pause

to all current decisions around 14 areas

and rescinded the decisions on four particular areas

and there were two other areas that had not made a decision.

The government indicated at that time they would undertake a rapid review.

That's government terminology in terms of rapid review.

We are still awaiting a further update from the government that we believe is due.

We commence on the 12th of October because parliament is currently in recess.

It is unclear what that update from the government will be, whether that would be to unpause,

whether that be to set a different time scale,

whether that be to continue or discontinue.

The impact for Gloucestershire

and the impact for this council

also fits into that unclear box.

So from a service delivery point of view,

we carry on delivering the services,

but from a planning point of view,

will the council exist come 1st of April, 2028,

if it's on the original time scale?

That has quite significant implications

for being financially sustainable.

So if, for example, LGR was delayed by a year or two,

the council will need to take adequate steps

within its financial planning to address the budget gap

in those years that it might not have been considering

it needed to think too far in advance for.

That said, one of the commitments that was made

by all of the leaders of all of the Gloucestershire councils

that it would be in planning its next budget for 27 -28, it would be taking steps not to

make 28 -29 worse, but also trying to find ways to make 28 -29 better. So that is already

built in, but it becomes much more of a political decision and one where I would need to give

advice in terms of what those options would be.

Nick Craxton - 0:26:37

Just follow up on that. And what is the council's current approach during this pause and

Do you know at what point?

It would be untenable for the 1st of April 28 to go ahead if it were just unpaused

Thanks

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:26:56

I'll address some of that in terms of what the council's approach is because that's consistent with

the wider

Gloucestershire approach so

the council in response to the letter that it received from Jim McMahon has paused activity

on LGR, where it is around implementing the decision that was made back in July. Where

the work is decision agnostic, I think it's the term that is used, so where you're understanding

the nature of what service delivery could look like, your baselining, that work is ongoing,

but clearly the longer the delay takes place,

the harder it may be for that original vesting day

to be achieved.

In the context of where other authorities are,

Surrey is currently implementing their decision

for a two unitary authority in Surrey

with a vesting day of the 1st of April, 2027.

So the debate will be whether it's safe and legal to implement that decision and

adequate work has been undertaken to make that happen or whether or not if

that pause becomes a longer pause whether that in itself pushes the

implementation date out because the implementation date can only be the 1st

of April of any given year.

Any further questions?

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:28:24

I do have a comment to make.

So we're currently looking at the table with the green

ratings, and we agreed, David, if you remember, that in the

future that table will include the evidence.

Is that correct?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:28:50

So in terms of where we are with the first update, we're indicating the status is on

target, but I appreciate members in terms of their question, so how can you demonstrate

that you're on target with financial sustainability and the question about whether it was the

report that was on target or actually delivering savings, then it would be useful to link the

evidence that supports that. So a future update that will come to the next meeting will include

links to other documentation that will support that assessment.

And Councillor Tillington.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:29:26

Councillor Craig Thurling - 0:29:28

Yes, so just picking up on that point about the on target bit, so I appreciate where it

is. So within this banding of being on target, so you could be well ahead or just ahead,

How is a is there a point to be made about?

What the risk it's slipping down from being on target would be?

and what measures could be in place to sort of either report that or monitor that or

In terms of the way it's being assessed you'll see on the page

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:29:57

29 is the rather helpful if you've got it in colour colour coded

section green red green amber red or complete

Within that green, as your Deputy Chief Executive,

your Section 151 Officer,

I would not be making the judgement

on financial sustainability likely

if I felt that the Council was off target

and not enough was being done to address that.

I would make that amber or red if it was serious enough.

So it does become, I think, at this early part

of the update on the AGS, more a judgement than an evidenced call. But it will be down

to those officers that are responsible for delivering the actions against the AGS to

come back with, I suppose, that assessment with the evidential trail that says, yes,

I'm confident that. But we don't tend to get into percentages or degrees of confidence,

but there will be of course a discussion around what is the risk of this particular action

drifting. So if I take financial sustainability and there wasn't adequate decisions coming

through, either in the October report or later, I would need to spell that out, I think, for

members to understand. So at the moment it's green, it's on target, but as soon as that

target starts to become more difficult to achieve, then I would expect to put in there

some assessment of what is that risk, quantify it. So is it only slightly off target or not?

The colour coding we've got probably is a bit too black and white for want of a better

way of putting it. In some of the wider project management documentation, we have a much more

nuanced position. It might be something for us to reflect on as officers to use that,

which indicates whether something is a minor off target or a major off target and assess

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:32:11

that to provide you with more clarity. Angela, do you have any comments that you

would like to make? None, thank you, Chair. Unless any members

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:32:23

course of questions for me. Thank you. Unless any members of the annual governance statement

action plan 2026 -2027 update number one and the comments made are noted. Moving on to the next

item on the agenda, item number 9, which I believe is on page 31 on both packs, is the

Internal Audit Progress Report. It provides independent assurance on the areas reviewed

and updates the committee on audit work and outstanding actions. The two completed audits

received meet substantial ratings we know priority one findings members are

asked to note the report so I'm going to invite Lucy Carter head of internal

Officer - 0:33:24

audit and to present the report Lucy over to you thank you chair I don't have

much more to add this is the all usual update report as you said we've got two

final reports tonight both the mid substantial assurances which is really

pleasing. We have a number of work ongoing just to update you the revenues

and benefits of all that is already in progress and we've done some good work

on that already and we continue to follow up all the agreed actions so it's

five weren't due this month there's one that was due in September when I drafted

the report so we'll do a follow -up on that probably this week but happy to

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:34:00

take any questions chair. Any questions from members?

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:34:06

Councillor Len Wilkins - 0:34:08

We're looking at page 44 sustainable impact assessment. Cabinet referred

trialling usage but trial outputs and complete examples are

available to assess them. So are we sure we're happy with this report?

Officer - 0:34:44

The action that was agreed is that climate officers will collaborate with

CDC's SLT to explore the possibility of trialling mandatory usage of the SIAT.

Any trials that are agreed will have documented outputs for review and we have an action date

of November 26 on that.

So we will review that hopefully in time for the next audit committee.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:35:10

Councillor Bransington, please.

Thank you, Chair.

I have got two questions.

Councillor Ray Brassington - 0:35:13

on the same page 44, adequacy of governance arrangements, it refers to the

Climate Board. Can you tell me who's on the Climate Board and what its remit is, please?

Officer - 0:35:28

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:35:34

I can't know but hopefully David might be able to. Thank you, Chair. So, Climate

Board is a non decision -making member -led body. It is chaired by Councillor

McEwen the vice chair is Councillor Everme and it's there with other

representatives both members and officers to work through some of the

actions as part of the council's climate emergency response and to provide that

challenge into progress that's being made so a particular focus might be the

waste fleet replacement programme,

looking at ways in which the council could accelerate

the decarbonization of its assets.

So it's a forum for that to be brought together,

but it doesn't have any decision -making powers.

It's not a formally constituted body of the council.

It's there more as a,

from the cabinet members perspective

and the leaders perspective,

a way of having those conversations

and having that challenge and ensuring progress

is being adequately focused on those issues on the climate emergency response.

Councillor Ray Brassington - 0:36:41

And the second question, on the next paragraph, performance matrix.

It says the number of corporate actions are being reduced by 66 % from 12 to 4.

That's quite a major reduction.

Are we in danger of missing something there by going from 12 to 4?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:37:03

I'll take that particular point away. I'll cheque what the 12 and the 4 are. But I'm not

cited on what those are specifically, so I'll get a written response to Councillor Brastin.

too much.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:37:19

Councillor Bridges first and Councillor Toulinton -Sig.

Councillor Nick Bridges - 0:37:28

It's only a small point about consistency. On this report you got an inequalities impact

which has got seven bullet points to it. On the previous report there was only two which

was the pregnancies, and what was the other one?

Religion.

So why just those two on the previous one, but seven

on this?

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:37:52

I'm going to respond to that.

I'll tell you, would you like?

It's just an error on their report, isn't it?

And the previous one, equality.

You remember, we talked about that earlier on.

It's a formative sort of error, really.

so we will get that corrected in the publication.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:38:20

Councillor Craig Thurling - 0:38:24

Councillor Toulington please. Yes thank you so on page 46 about the staff well -being

specifically around LGR was this taken as a snapshot prior to the decision that

LGR has been suspended and if so it's noted that greater transparency is needed

around sort of metrics particularly around sickness and absence. Given sort

of the amount of support that officers and employees provide as members and

also for the wider council and community, I'm just wondering whether

there's been a change in sort of those metrics accordingly with the more

uncertainty and whether there's concerns in place around how as a council we

could support those workers and if if they leave what what exposure is there

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:39:23

for certain types of services within the council's remit Oh would you or Angela

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:39:27

Angela would you like to come in and yeah thank you thank you yeah very very

happy to pick this one up. Thank you for your question, Councillor Thurlian. Obviously,

as David said earlier on in this evening's meeting, we had the news about the pause of

LGR on the 7th of September, so very conscious that we're not even a month into that. However,

what we have got running at this point in time is the staff survey, so that's one area

that we can, that closes around about the end of October. I think it closes on the 30th

October and that came out once the decision about the pause was already

known so that is a that's a good barometer if you like a good health

cheque for us to see how employees feel about yet another level of uncertainty

on top of what they were already facing. You talk about obviously employee

turnover which is you know with the uncertainty it's absolutely a concern

for us although employees are all in different places some might be very

happy to see it out. Some might be wishing to, you know, it's given them a lot of concern

about their livelihoods. We had a retention strategy which was agreed by Cabinet in April.

So that includes a number of actions which, most of which have been implemented around

what we're doing around staff and we're very cognizant of the risks of recruitment and

retention with the uncertainty. We do have, and as has already been touched on, we do

have employee metrics that we see as a senior leadership team once a month and in fact we've

got them coming up again soon. So we've got our fingers on the pulse so to speak in terms of

if we're starting to see an increase in you know patterns around resignations or in particular

areas or acts interviews or revealing reasons be that people are leaving which are perhaps

concerning and directly related to LGR. So lots of lots of activities in place and I think to pick

up your final point, what do we do if we have to recruit? We are recruiting. Every request

to fill a vacancy comes in front of our leadership team, which is chaired by the chief executive.

So we're looking at all options to recruit. It might be, if necessary, that we have to

look to agency staff because we're also cognizant of the budget pressures that the authority

is facing. So far we've been able to fill vacancies but it is becoming an

increasing struggle and something that we're very conscious of. So rather a full

answer there chair but hopefully that covered all of Councillor Thirlings

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:42:02

Councillor Craig Thurling - 0:42:05

points. Thank you Angela. A follow -up? Yes Councillor Thirlings. Yes please. I mean that sounds you know

everything's in control. I'm just wondering whether we're also missing the trick with

say another metrics which I would be hesitant to say is the right one but like

productivity performance matrix because surely if people with the uncertainty

around LGR people might become less engaged with their work and particularly

like from forward -facing roles like other bin collections or whatever

whatever the role is I'm just wondering whether without that support in place

whether they would be potentially more minded to not be as productive and again

I appreciate it's quite a very sensitive area and I wouldn't propose it out of

know anything but I'm just wondering is there is a causal link between one and the other that we

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:42:54

need to be aware of. Angela would you like to thank you so yes if I can if I can come back in

on that point so like you say always a subjective area and an emotive area productivity and there

are there are several tools in our bag that we use in our tool bag that we use to monitor

productivity. I have to say generally speaking, most staff have been with even

with with this uncertainty hanging over them, most staff are performing

exceptionally well. And I know you touched on the Fairford incident at the

start of the meeting that was a that was a real indication of how brilliant

staff are performing. We've got various, as I say, various tools in our toolbag

for which we monitor performance sickness absence is is one, we look at

levels of complaints. We're not in the type of business where you can count

widgets or most of our work is very much about customer facing,

but we've got a number of HR policies that support us around that.

So it's about us keeping on top of those HR metrics such as

sickness absence levels and looking at whether we're seeing any increases,

or it could be computer usage, whatever it is.

We've got various things that we use,

but as I say, little bit harder in

our business because there are so many services provided,

and we aren't in that sort of typical, like I say,

where you could count the widgets that are produced

at the end of the hour.

Thank you, Angela.

David.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:44:16

Thank you, Chair.

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:44:19

So just to, I suppose, supplement what Angela has said,

regular one -to -ones with staff is important.

Completing the appraisal process is important

and it's some of that softer day -to -day management

and conversations with staff that are equally as important

as some of the ways in which you can measure productivity.

So I have regular monthly one -to -ones with my team.

I have a regular weekly one -to -one with Jane

as the chief executive, and that helps identify

where those pressures are.

Is that performance where it needs to be?

Am I delivering the report on the budget strategy

and MTFS update by the deadline that's required?

All those things are part of a wider set of management tools for like the best way of

pushing it that we have available.

But it is around having that relationship from a professional point of view with your

staff, being engaged with them.

Because if all you're doing is in effect waiting for the dashboard to tick over and say you've

got a problem, you're not doing your job.

Any further questions?

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:45:29

I have a couple of questions or comments to make. Certainly the two completed audits are encouraging.

Thank you team, thank you Lucy. But Lucy, how much of the audit planning has been completed?

I'm looking for is there anything that has been delayed, deferred at this point in time?

9 Internal Audit Progress Report - October

At this point in time, Chair, no.

Officer - 0:45:56

So we are on track.

As far as I'm aware, we're on track.

Thank you, Lucia, for that confirmation.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:46:01

Now, on page 50, let me get there for one second, please.

It's page 50, yeah.

So we have six outstanding actions that have had the deadlines extended.

Perhaps I would like to see why those deadlines have been extended

and how the remaining risks are being managed.

Is there anybody that can provide me with a response?

Officer - 0:46:44

I was just going to add that the revenues and benefits agreed actions

of which there are one, two, three will be picked up in this year's audit.

Those are the reasons those dates have been extended to allow for us

to undertake the audit rather than us go back.

Because we audit revenues and benefits every year, it makes sense

to tie the agreed action into that point in time.

The climate change operational one,

that timeline hasn't been extended.

That's the 30th of November and the same as the LGR audit.

Those are the two that have come

out of the audits we've discussed this evening.

The only other one is the bank reconciliation action

and having spoken to Michelle this afternoon,

we're able to close that one off now.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:47:29

I was more concerned about them, one, two, three, four, five, the fifth item because

they had a priority of two.

Thank you for that.

Thank you.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:47:59

Now I will take this opportunity to welcome Councillor Thea into the room and the two

observers present with us.

Moving on to item 10 of the agenda, which is on page 51, I believe of both packs, it

starts on page 51, is the annual review of the Council's local code of corporate governance.

This code sets out the principles and arrangements for how the Council conducts its business.

Members are asked to review and adopt their updated code and I'm going to invite the

I am going to invite Angela back into the room to introduce the report.

Angela, are you with us here?

I am, thank you.

Thank you very much, Chair.

Good evening, Councillors.

So, Chair, you stole some of my thunder and you did a very good introduction for me, so

thank you.

So essentially the local Code of Corporate Governance could probably be described as our

governance rulebook. So as the Chair's already said, it sets out our standards and arrangements

that help us ensure that all our decisions are taken properly, that public money is spent wisely,

that risks are managed, and that CDC remains accountable and focused on delivering outcomes

for our communities, all of which we've touched on this evening already. So every year we review

how well we are meeting those standards and identify any areas improvement which then

link into the AGS, the Annual Governance Statement, also which you've discussed this evening.

So our template documents are largely based on the ones that are produced by CIPFA. CIPFA

is our finance, it's David's professional body and SOLIS, which is the Society of Local

Authority Chief Exec, so it's based on the principles that they're of good governance.

So I suppose to sum up, the constitution tells us what powers we have and how decisions are

10 Local Code of Corporate Governance

made, but the local code explains how we ensure that those powers are exercised well and for

our communities.

So members, happy to take any questions that you've got on the code.

As I say, you see this annually.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:50:34

Thank you, Angela.

Nick, please.

Thanks, Angela.

Nick Craxton - 0:50:39

I just I look at the website and I can see annex a and annex B and it says annex a is tracked

But I can't see any tracking probably because of the PDF thing of it

I don't know. Can you just give me are there any changes there any substantive what you know?

So Nick, thank you you've picked up sorry through you chair

You've picked up the exact same point because I have just looked on the screen and I can't see them either

So I'm conscious that there aren't that many changes

but that a copy was being very rapidly printed off.

I don't know whether my DEM services colleagues

were able to do that in the time that they had

or whether somebody could identify them.

There aren't a great deal.

Thank you, Nikki.

I can see she's about to hand you a copy.

Apologies, members.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:51:35

We realised that when we uploaded them,

we lost the track changes.

My apologies.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:51:41

Any further comments?

Don't know what changes are, do we?

No.

Councillor Ray Brassington - 0:51:51

Someone want to go through.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:51:54

I can see there's literally barely any changes.

I think the most standard one is changing interim

Nick Craxton - 0:51:59

to permanent chief executive.

So I think you're probably all right.

Thank you.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:52:06

I am going to give a few minutes, one or two minutes to members to go through their papers

while I am asking a few questions myself.

On page 53, paragraph 34, the report says that the Council has a good governance framework.

What evidence supports that assessment, Angela?

When you say you mean the evidence that all the things that we say that we do, we're doing?

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:52:41

Exactly that. Thank you.

It's exactly that. So, and then we're not just marking our own homework, I suppose,

to sort of put it colloquially. So several ways, if you like, that we're inspected in

our governance. So we've obviously got Lucy Cater with us today. So part of Lucy's audit

plan includes various aspects of our governance framework. So she will look to ensure that

what we say we're doing, we're doing. We get external audit, we'll also look at various

governance areas. And there is usually a section where every year there is a section from the

external auditors specifically relating on governance.

So they will look at, for example,

have we updated our constitution recently?

It's very easy to let the constitution slide.

It's that type of thing that they will look at

to ensure that we're doing that.

So we get that external assessment

from both Lucy's audit team and our external auditors.

Periodically, we will have something called a peer review.

members will recall, I think we lasted this in 2022 -23,

when an external team from other councils come in

and have a look at what we're doing.

So that's why it's our peer review.

They will always look at governance.

I always have a long conversation with them

and they want to see what we're doing

across a number of headings.

So that's another, if you like, external assessment

that goes into the public domain.

Obviously this committee has a very important role.

Governance is in your title

and part of your role is not only holding us as officers into account,

but the cheque -in that we've got all the governance arrangements that we should have in place.

And Nick is our independent person and Chris, who is very often with us,

you'll know that they will often ask quite searching questions to ensure that, again,

as members, we're not trying to bamboozle you or we're bringing some fresh eyes on it.

So several areas, if you like, are focused to ensure

that we're doing what we're doing,

or we're doing what we say we're doing.

Chair, thank you.

Thank you, Angela.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:54:54

Right, on page, this second question,

I've got two more questions.

Second question is that on page 85,

how is the work performed

by the standards hearing subcommittee and obviously the monitoring officer's finding

reflected in that framework? Or should it be reflected explicitly?

If I understand correctly, Chair, it is important that every local authority, it arose from

Localism Act in 2011 has to have a mechanism in place by which we have a disciplinary process,

if you like, within the legislative framework for Towne Parish district members. The Standards

Subcommittee is an important part of that. You will have seen, you will recall my report

in July. I always bring an annual standards report to yourselves and you will have seen

that year after year, very sadly, we are seeing an increase in deteriorating behaviour in

some small pockets across our district, predominantly around town and parish councillors. If that

behaviour, if we cannot, if it's of a, I'm just trying to think how the right way to

phrase it, if it is suitably serious enough, together with an independent person, a different

one to Nick. I work with that independent person and we sometimes have to have an investigation,

which is again undertaken by independent individuals within the Counter Fraud Unit. Whether that

actually is of a seriousness situation that we cannot resolve it informally, we've got

to get to a hearing. So in terms of the arrangements that we have for governance, what we would

be inspected on or asked to provide is the details of how our standards subcommittee

is run, and that is part of our constitution. You know, any evidence as to how we have run

them if we've needed to, and the outcomes of that. So I think the key thing, Chair,

is that the arrangements that we've got in place for how our standards subcommittee is

run are up to date. Again, you might recall at our July meeting, we only had some very

minor changes but they went through for this committee's attention at that point.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:57:33

So in your view, the standards committee should not be reflected in that framework?

Not in the framework, just the fact that we meet the legislative requirements that obliges to have one.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:57:53

The third point I wanted to raise is regarding paragraph 2 .4, which is the report says that the EGA section plan updates

are provided every six months, but we know that that's not a true picture of it. So

I think we need to update that to match up the updates on the schedule, on the work plan.

So I think it's every time that we have a meeting.

Good spot, Chair. Thank you. Good spot.

Thank you.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:58:33

Any comments?

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:58:35

The two gentlemen at the back.

I don't want to stop you for talking to each other.

I will request for you to lower your voice a bit.

From what we are seeing, it is difficult to understand what Angela was saying.

Or the other members.

sorry so if I can ask you to do that please thank you. Apologies chair. It's okay

it's only. Our problem was we can't find anything here about planning enforcement.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:59:12

Councillor Len Wilkins - 0:59:15

So again, Councillor Wilkinson. Planning enforcement we've got bullet points

about planning but nothing about enforcement of planning. So no points for enforcement of planning?

I can't find them.

Please, thank you.

63.

Councillor Len Wilkins - 0:59:36

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:59:41

So Angela on page 63 Councillor Wilkinson is asking why are we not

including any comments on planning or enforcement.

Apologies, Chair. I am just very quickly jumping to, so page 63.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:00:15

53. 63.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:00:17

I'm there. I'm there.

So can I just clarify, if you don't mind, through you, chair.

So, Councillor Wilkins, your concern is that as part of that planning, if you like, planning

update or planning overview, that planning enforcement should be particularly identified

out of that?

Councillor Len Wilkins - 1:00:45

Judging by the number of outstanding items, yes.

I think they have about 600 cases that they are trying to solve.

And you are absolutely right.

I don't know if 600 is right, but we do have a peak of planning enforcement cases which

we currently have an enhanced team that are working their way through an action plan with

other officer support.

So, Chair, very happy to take away and in that sort of planning intervention section

make reference to planning enforcement if that's something that you'd like officers

to do.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:01:23

I think that David wants to comment on that, so let's give way to David to make the comment.

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:01:31

Thank you, Chair.

No, in complete agreement with Angela's position that she's set out.

So the part of the annual governance statement is looking

at principle D, determining interventions necessary to

optimise the achievement of intended outcomes.

So we grant planning permission, but we need to ensure that that

planning permission has been followed and where enforcement

comes in, that's ensuring you're still making sure that you're

getting the intended outcome while that's being achieved.

So it's a point well made and I think we'll include that

in any updated evidence base that we will require

for that particular principle.

In terms of the local code of corporate governance,

I'll take a quick flick through the tracked changes document

for members benefit.

I can find probably no more than four tracked changes,

paragraph 1 .9, which changes the word at to in,

and a couple of bullet point formatting changes

and the aforementioned change of the chief executive

from interim to now permanent.

Beyond that, the overall governance framework

hasn't seen any significant update.

There was an addendum issued

to the annual governance statement in 2025

that's now effective and you'll have seen that

in the annual governance statement that we presented

to you as members at the last meeting because that

included the executive summary requirement and

greater emphasis on organisational resilience,

both financial, economic, and also making sure that

we can continue to address those key areas around

stakeholder engagement and climate change.

So I think a lot of that regulatory environment,

for one to a better way of putting it in terms of the

SITPAS solace addendum has been reflected, but there

hasn't been any significant change to the SIPFASOLIS

guidance since that addendum was issued.

Any further questions?

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:03:40

Thank you.

11 Q1 Prudential Indicators (Treasury Management) 2026/27

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:04:06

For the first quarter, 2026 -2027, covering 1 April to 30 June, Members are asked to note

their indicators. We have had the opportunity to discuss Treasury management with Arlene

closed today and our Treasury advisors are in close and and now I'm going to

invite David and Michelle Michelle Michelle is gonna do I'm going to invite

Michelle to present the council's report and highlight any matters requiring the

Officer - 1:04:49

committee's attention Thank You Michelle Thank You chair good evening everyone and

so the report in front of you just provides the committee with the 4 to 1

update on our Treasury management indicators for 26 .7 and it's a regular

item on your agenda. Pleased to say that you'll see hopefully from the report

that the council has remained within its approved Treasury framework and that all

the prudential and Treasury indicators were actually complied with. There

is one minor exception that we set out and that relates to the interest rate

risk indicator but just to reassure you really that that's not that's not a

particular Treasury management issue. It doesn't indicate any

inappropriate decisions that have been taken. It's simply because we've held a

higher surplus cash balance than we'd anticipated when we set the original

budget and we set these indicators and it's largely a result of things like

additional grant received funding being received or less money being spent on

capital expenditure than we expected. So there's a little bit more sensitivity

to a 1 % movement in interest rates,

then we forecast and you'll see that in the approved limit

that was breached by around 10 ,000 pounds.

This would really only be an issue

if we were in a net borrowing position,

but we're not, we're only investing

and we're not subject to any variable interest rates.

The wider treasury position does remain strong.

Our cash balances and investments have been managed

in accordance with the strategy

and we continue to place a sort of high priority on security and liquidity,

whilst also seeking an appropriate return on our investments.

You'll see the report also includes our latest position on indicators such as the liability benchmark,

which I know we spoke about in the training earlier,

and it also includes investment limits and credit limit risk measures as well,

which hopefully will show to you that we are continuing to manage those risks effectively.

Hopefully that provides you with a good level of assurance, but obviously happy to take any questions. Thank you.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:06:56

Before I bring members in, David, any comments that you would like to make in line with government recent announcements or Bank of England interest rates?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:07:15

No, I mean Michelle summed up the current position as reported at the end of Q1 very

well. The interest rates in terms of the bank base rate hasn't changed. I think there's

more upside risk as Arlene Close would put it, of the interest rate increase than a decrease.

where you look at on page 92 the PWLB maturity rates that were in play at the end of June.

They've moved significantly upward since then, so currently one year maturity loan is 5 .25 %

and a 50 year maturity loan is 6 .37%, so it gives you a sense that in the intervening period

of around three months that has seen quite significant increase. Ten -year

guilt prices, 25 -year guilt prices which form the basis of the PWOB certainty

rate have increased. But for this council where we do not have any external debt

other than the climate bond that we took advantage of two or three years ago, that

is less of a concern, but we are mindful that interest rates, we are exposed to them by

that liability indicator that when that's been set, although we're slightly non -compliant

in that, I would expect that position if interest rates continue to increase and our cash balances

aren't spent as quickly as we had forecast that position to get worse in a sense, but

it's not a pass or fail indicator.

It's one to highlight to members,

I suppose the exposure the council has got

to variable interest rates

and how that impacts on the revenue budget.

But clearly as Michelle set out,

given the council is a net investor,

an increasing interest rate and higher cash balances

will provide the opportunity

to generate more investment income.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:09:18

Any questions for our chief accountant, please?

Councillor Todlink.

Councillor Craig Thurling - 1:09:27

Yes, am I correct in assuming then that the exposure to interest rate increases is only limited if you had specific levels of debt?

Because indirectly, if you haven't got debt,

but you're also providing services and you're having to pay for those services,

then the inflationary effect that will drive those interest rates are going up,

you're still exposed to.

So even though you're not exposed directly to the interest rates,

the inflationary effect, you will be.

And sort of what would you do in those circumstances?

At what point would you then sort of say,

well, actually we need to reduce our cash reserves a little bit to pay for this?

Or do we increase our cash reserves with the expectation that interest rates

are going to go up in the future to offset that sort of risk.

Michelle, David.

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:10:14

So in terms of the indicator, this is purely looking at what a 1 % change in interest rate

would do to our forecast cash balances and the interest that would either incur or receive.

So we make an assessment when we set the Treasury management indicators, what that cash balance

will be on average in the course of the year. We then calculate what a 1 % increase or decrease

would do. What it doesn't do is address those issues you're highlighting so the council

will have exposure to changes in inflation, changes in interest rates, which this is not

trying to cover off. That in itself doesn't lead to the council making decisions on whether

to hold more cash now or more cash tomorrow because it might be protecting an increase

coming on interest rates. What it will do is make us think carefully about our treasury

management investment. So how we've got those placed with short -term deposits in terms of

money market funds, if interest rates are projected to go up, money market funds will

follow that but if we've got Treasury management investments in longer dated

investments like call accounts where you have to require to give notice that

requires a different discipline but absolutely in the financial planning

aspect part of what I've been writing today in the budget strategy is that

pressure on the council's finances from interest rate increases and inflation

rate increases and what does that mean in terms of the budget position. It doesn't though look at

whether or not the council should hold more cash balances that will be through the treasury

management strategy that we'll consider as part of that budget setting process.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:12:06

Nick Craxton - 1:12:10

Can I just clarify that I understood I think what you're saying because I always worry with the term

Net because it can often hide a lot of things

But I think you're saying the only loan the council has is this CFR this climate fund which is about

450 ,000 what looks of it

Then there's no other kind of debt exposure per se even if it's net positive

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:12:36

So I can confirm there is no external debt

The only debt that we took on was a climate bond,

which was a treasury management investment decision

in terms of we took half a million pounds on.

We've been repaying that over the last two or three years.

I think it's due to mature in terms of the final payment

going back to investors mid 27, 28,

so within the next financial year.

Other than that, the council has zero debt.

So the term debt free is a term the council could use

if it didn't have that rather small amount of,

in comparison to other authorities, of external debt.

So once that's been fully repaid,

the council will then be debt free.

Any further questions?

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:13:25

Councillor Craig Thurling - 1:13:30

Just on the point about debt again,

I know there's a difference between the public and private

sort of enterprise as such but if you're going to be debt -free and then

potentially in the future you might be more exposed to fuel increases or

interest rates whatever would you then consider having a small amount of

medium -sized amount of debt to invest in efficiency savings to to offset the

longer -term risk of higher interest rates potentially?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:13:57

In terms of the way in which the council would take debt on it would take

take debt on to finance its capital programme

and its investments.

So in the current environment where it's set

its capital strategy and its treasury management strategy,

the council has no requirement to take debt on.

It's got adequate internal resources to pay for that.

So the waste fleet is being paid for

through capital receipts.

We fund dedicated schools grants,

disabled facilities grants through the DFG grant

that we get passed through from the Better Care Fund.

So there is no requirement.

Should the Council determine that it wants

a more expansive capital programme

and wants to invest in something,

be that an asset or service, that is capital of nature,

that in itself will drive the underlying need to borrow

because the Council's internal resources

won't match the expenditure it's got to pay.

What the Council will not do is borrow

to fund revenue service operations.

That's not something that's allowed.

The only time you can do that is with flexible use

of capital receipts.

The council has a state policy statement on that

where if we receive capital receipts,

we can set aside a proportion of those

to use for revenue expenditure that qualifies

and that is usually where you're making

that transformational change

where there's a high upfront cost of making that change

but it delivers reduced costs going forward.

So a typical example would be investment

in an IT infrastructure service

that requires quite a high cost up,

but it leads to reductions in cost further down the line.

So it wouldn't be appropriate for the council

to undertake prudential borrowing in the short term

to invest in services and start buying those services

in advance because it thinks

there's an inflationary pressure coming,

but we are required to set an annual budget,

and that's the authority that is granted to officers

to then deliver those services.

There's no authority then to forward fund

unless you're entering into a contract.

You're making that commitment to pay,

but you're not paying that contract until it's due.

Is that, yeah.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:16:22

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:16:28

I am going to make two points. My first point is on page 91. I am going to request Michelle

to confirm that the interest rate exposure figure of 240 ,000 against an approved limit

of 230 ,000 is correct.

The reason why I need to do that, Michelle,

you probably have seen it, is that in the actual column,

we're missing the units.

Yeah, good spot.

Officer - 1:17:05

I did spot that when I was going through.

Yeah, it's not 24 pence.

It's, yeah.

Thank you, Michelle.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:17:12

And the second comment that I would like to make

is regarding point 4 .8 on the same page.

And then the report explains that the breach refers to the additional grant income and the underspent capital programme.

What I would like to know is how is the exposure being managed and when is it expected to return within the approved limit?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:17:49

So in terms of paragraph 4 .8, the interest rate exposure is impacted by an increase or

decrease in that rate and the cash balance that we're holding.

So we make a forecast, so I'll use the example of the waste vehicles.

The forecast of when those waste vehicles would be paid for is about 6 million would

of being paid for during the latter quarter

of the financial year, so between January and March.

If that doesn't happen and there's slippage

in the delivery time scales of those vehicles

and it doesn't happen until let's say April or May,

we will be holding six million pounds more

than we had forecast.

So that would translate into a higher number

on that particular indicator.

So that indicator would only get improved

in terms of its compliance and it's a compliance indicator, it's not a breach.

So in terms of other prudential indicators we set an operational or an

authorised limit on our borrowing and we were not compliant with that. That would

be a breach that we would have to report through to members of this committee. So

it doesn't have quite the same impact but it's to highlight I suppose how is

the council estimating its cash balances and the returns it may get from

investment or the price it may pay for loans.

So I would be challenging myself and officers

to ensure that we're providing better forecasting of that.

But as you will appreciate, we are in a very

febrile environment with interest rates

and the wider economy.

And particularly with the example I gave of waste vehicles,

those lead times are extending

because of deposit return schemes.

So one of the conversations I had with Peter Johnson was there are 600 vehicles in the manufacturing queue because of the requirement for those that operate establishments that sell drinks in bottles that would be part of that deposit return scheme, which is largely plastic.

They happen to provide those vehicles, that's 600 in the queue before we get to ours.

So over the course of time those lead times might reduce

But we're probably in quite a lengthy period between an order being placed and the actually

Delivery being achieved so it might drift further out during the course of the year

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:20:22

Councillor Tiltinger

Miami State

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:20:25

Councillor Jeremy Theyer - 1:20:27

I'm just going back to the

agreed a price, are they contracted to stick to that

price or is that price going to grow now with inflation

incurring or don't we know?

I shall provide a written response.

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:20:47

There might, hypothetically, let's say you've agreed to buy

a vehicle at X.

That vehicle might have lots of bits and pieces in it that come

from various bits of the world.

Do those bits still add up to the same price?

I will get you a proper answer.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:21:05

So it's a lock up price then?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:21:08

I can't give you, as members of this committee, a satisfactory response either way.

I would give you a written response that I'll get from Peter that will say, this is what

we've agreed to, this is what's within the remit of a price that's been agreed, and these

are the extenuating circumstances that might see that price change.

I would be surprised if we are open to that type of revision on price because the manufacturer

may want to push up prices but they've got to price some of that risk in.

It's whether or not there's extenuating circumstances because as you would have seen with IT equipment

the price of RAM has gone through the roof because there's various data centres for AI

and other things eating all that up so the price of your consumer goods is

going up because of that.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:22:01

I'm sure that the legal team is very efficient.

Councillor Thayer.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:22:08

Councillor Craig Thurling - 1:22:09

Just following on from that point, I think it's a very good question because if you've

agreed a price at X and it's now going to be Y but that Y is dependent on the

fact that there's 600 vehicles ahead of you in the queue that wasn't there when

you signed the order, that sounds like it's a them problem rather than a you

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:22:26

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:22:32

problem. So the 600 example I gave all would be 600 particular

vehicles so we've got in place some orders from Aromaquip for our recycling

vehicles. They may not be the same ones it might be standard refuse collection

vehicles or rear RCBs that are those in the queue. I'll get you a proper response

from Peter that will explain it more fully than I'm able to provide tonight. I was trying

to use the 600 example as the types of things that will influence when we pay for something.

But certainly the current position is there's about a 14 -month lead time, partly explained

by this glut of orders that's being placed. But I would expect as those get delivered

that lead time will get back down to normal, which will be between nine and 12 months.

Any further questions?

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:23:22

Thank you.

The quarter one indicators are noted.

Moving on to item 12, the Procurement Action Plan update for October 2026.

This report begins on page 95, I believe, and the report says that all the remaining

actions have been completed. Members are asked to note the progress, comment on the report

and agree to consider formal closure on the 3rd of December, alongside the external auditor's

annual report. I'm going to invite David back in to present the report. Thank you, David.

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:24:21

Thank you, Chair. So this is the second update report on progress against the procurement

12 Procurement Action Plan - Follow-Up #2

action plan. The action plan was considered by this committee back in September of 2025,

and then an update was provided to Audit and Governance Committee in April with a

indication that report that this would be the meeting that a second update

would come forward as there were two items on the action plan where there

were some outstanding actions that needed to be completed. So this report

provides members with that update. So Annex A includes within that the update

It was provided in April and the update as it is on the 5th of October.

I'm content that where we had some outstanding actions, mandatory training programme, those

sessions are delivered on an ongoing basis and that would be for new staff as and when

they join.

The terms of reference commissioning and computer board has been completed.

So that's shown in bold in that final but one column from the right.

Improve financial reporting.

That has been completed.

So we're now reporting through to Cabinet using a hierarchy of cost centres.

So cost centre is the level at which a budget is held for budget manager accountability.

But as you summarise that up, you use a hierarchy where you group those cost centres together.

So an example to use planning would be there's planning services, but within that there will

be development management, enforcement, appeals and so on.

But we're grouping those up and the further you summarise them up, so we have in place

a structure that reflects the organisational structure.

So governance, resources, communities in place and the chief executive.

So that then sets the level and then there's levels below that.

That was completed in June and then a series of summarization reports have been provided

through the council's financial system, Aggreso Business World, and that's been rolled out

in the initial instance to the Director of Communities in Place and the Assistant Director

for Planning Services to ensure they can have that good visibility.

And I suppose the final update will be around purchase to pay.

We rolled that out with a soft launch earlier in the year in June, July.

We've now got beyond the soft launch.

So what Michelle is doing with colleagues from the Exchequer Service and accounts payable

is identifying where goods and services have been ordered without the purchase order and

making sure that that is corrected

because we're outside that soft launch period

where we took a slightly more amnesty view

that we needed to ensure that offices knew what to do

before we then took a slightly harder line.

And the final point, sorry, point nine

is council awareness.

That training was delivered.

That was largely not complete in terms of

demonstrate it was complete, but it has been completed

with the follow up for all members

and the ability to watch that recording back.

So in terms of where this Procurement Action Plan is,

I'm content that the actions that were identified

in September have been completed.

We can evidence those.

But when drafting this report, I felt that when you consider

the significant governance issue that was in the AGS

and what Bishop Fleming reported

in their annual auditors report last year,

that it would be premature for this committee

to consider whether this had been closed

until you've received that annual auditors report

at the meeting on the 3rd of December.

By then, Bishop Fleming will have spent some time

considering the council's response

to that governance concern and making judgement

within the VFM judgement for the 25 -26 financial year. So happy to take any questions members have got on the report.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:28:44

Councillor Craig Thurling - 1:28:50

I suppose it's how far in advance of the committee would it be published and are there any spoilers that you are aware of?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:29:05

So the auditor's annual report would be published in advance of the committee alongside the

normal papers that would be provided.

I am mindful that when you suggest to auditors that they need to provide something significantly

advanced, there is a shelf life on any audit opinion and there's a process that external

audit will go through having considered what the issue is, spoken to officers

here. They will then need to take that away and run that through an internal

review in their organisation to ensure they can deliver a safe audit opinion as

they would view it. So I'm confident in terms of the update that was provided to

Michelle by Bishop Fleming last week that they're on track to complete that

work during October and will close the audit with us as officers late October

early November so those papers and that audit opinion will be available for

members on the 3rd of December. As far as Shell and I are aware no significant

issues have been identified by Bishop Fleming in either their work on VFM or

on their audit of the financial statements but that will be at a

particular point in time. I'm sure external auditors would always have the

review that position and tell us otherwise if that's something came to light.

Councillor Craig Thurling - 1:30:28

Not sort of presuming there will be any issues, but if there are, would a month,

yeah, about a month give you enough time to work out an action plan to resolve those issues?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:30:41

So in terms of should the scenario play out that external audit identify that there hasn't

been enough action taken to address that governance issue, there would be a management response

to that and we would then need to agree as officers and with the committee and with other

members what that appropriate actions would be. So we would need to consider that in the

time that's available between them issuing the audit opinion and coming here, particularly

around the VFM, it may be that if there was an issue where they

didn't feel there was enough evidence supported, that might

be something that could be resolved relatively quickly.

So in the period between them providing that assessment and

then finalising that assessment, we can clear that off.

It might be something that we need to go back and spend

more time doing.

So it would very much depend on the nature of what they find,

the nature of the recommendation, and how we can

then either agree with that and provide a management sponsor, we can challenge that

and say, have you considered X, Y and Z? Have you worked through those? Because we feel

that has been addressed. That's more hypothetical rather than around the procurement issue.

Clearly that will be a focus they will have around VFM. But I think in terms of the update

that you're getting here, from an officer point of view, we're content that all the

actions that were identified in the procurement action plan have been addressed. I suppose

you need that external assessment, given it was raised in their audit report last year,

for you then to be fully content. But there will be a bit of toing and froing with the

external auditors once they provide that draught to us, where we'll fact cheque and consider

whether anything else needs to be done before it comes to members here.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:32:41

Will that independent opinion include a review of the controls that were

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:32:54

implemented in March of this year? Yes, so in terms of what external audit will do

they identified last year the governance issue. They are looking for a strength

of the internal controls around that so they will take into account anything

that's happened since September 2025 because they purposely didn't address it

in the 2024 -25 audit report and whether that has contributed to a change in

their view in terms of the status that's currently shown in the report as a red

whether that becomes an amber or it becomes a green.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:33:29

And the internal audit on procurement is still ongoing, I believe, so will it be ready for

December?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:33:42

I shall cheque with Lucy because I think she's left.

Yeah, but we can wait for Lucy.

But I shall find, so the internal audit review of procurement will have a slightly different

focus.

I'll speak to Lucy and get her to provide a response to this

committee as to what that scope of that audit will be and when

that will be likely to report back through.

But I suspect it will have a slightly different focus rather

than covering the same ground that external audit will.

External audit will have their own requirements and their own

evidence base that they'll want to see in terms of the internal

controls.

The internal audit of procurement might be focused on

a very specific area.

They might not cover the whole bit of procurement and start to

finish.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:34:25

I have a question very quickly.

Regarding the e -form, I think it is on page 101, and the purchase to pay, does any missing

require e -form stop a purchase approval or there's a missing valid purchase order, a

stop payment, and if so, who authorises the payment or the e -form and who reviews the

exceptions?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:35:16

questions. Thank you, Chair. I'll provide a brief overview, but Michelle is probably

going to be better placed on some of the detail as she has the responsibility with accounts

payable reviewing the non -compliance. In a sense, what we're trying to do is move to

a position where the majority of goods and services that the Council orders that are

able to be raised with a purchase order are raised with a purchase order, but there's

some scoping that would have taken place as part of the

implementation of this that certain goods and services

aren't well suited to a purchase order.

So the usual example is mobile phone contract costs,

utility bills.

It's very difficult to provide a purchase order for an exact

amount when you don't know what it's going to be until you get

the bill.

But in terms of where we're trying to get to is ensure that

percentage of compliance is higher.

So there's some education required and some enforcement required that I'll hand over to

Michelle who will probably be able to fill in some of those gaps in terms of what that

day -to -day process is of reviewing and whether something gets paid or not.

Officer - 1:36:23

Thank you, Michelle.

Thank you, David.

Thank you, Chair.

The mandatory e -form, is that specifically what you were wanting to know about?

So, yeah, we were hoping that we'd be able to do that directly through our financial

system business world but it was it hasn't been possible so we've got a

separate form which is new form which is accessible on our portal which officers

have to fill in if they make any purchases above five thousand pound and

the purchase order then won't be approved until procurement are aware

that that form has been completed and signed off as well so it's just an extra

no exceptions no not for over five thousand if it's over five thousand you

have to fill in that form and procurement would cheque that it's filled

in before it's progressed to approve the purchase order.

Who are the approved titles of the exceptions under 5 ,000?

It will depend on the individual cost centre. There's six levels and

there's different approvers at each level depending on their position.

Thanks.

Any further questions?

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:37:33

Okay.

So, I will now put the recommendation to vote, to the vote.

So, the vote is to note the report completion of their actions and agree, sorry, to consider formal closure on the 3rd of December,

alongside external auditors annual report, subject to that report being

available, but we believe that that will be the case. All those in favour please

raise your hands. Thank you, that is agreed. And we're moving to item number

13 Strategic Risk Register

13 now. This is the strategic risk register. So this report follows the previous review

in July 2026. Our members are asked to review the risk under mitigation measures used to

manage them. There are four risk that remain unchanged. We also need to consider the AGR

pose and here an initial update following the Walford incident near Fairford. I'm

going to welcome an update on what worked well, what needs improving and when this committee

will receive an update on civil contingency risk, which

should cover coordination with partners, communications,

and support for vulnerable residents.

Over to you, David.

Thank you, Chair.

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:39:32

So just to introduce the report, this

is the same strategic risk register

that was included in the corporate performance

report that Cabinet considered on the 10th of September. So this is the update from the

last version of the strategic risk register that this committee received on the 27th of

July. Paragraph 3 .4 is important. So between, I suppose, the papers for Cabinet being published

for the 10th of September meeting, we had the announcement by the government on the

10th of September of a pause in the LGR programme.

We've discussed that as a corporate leadership team when

we've undertaken our most recent review of the strategic risk

considered here, we felt it appropriate to include that as a

comment so that we are cognizant of the additional risks and

impact from the LGR pause, but rather than review and update

each risk in turn in terms of whether it has an LGR pause

impact or not, because that might change by the time we get

to the next one of these committees, we will be including

a new risk that will cover all of those issues as a separate

identifiable risk.

So that's being undertaken by the corporate leadership team.

You'll notice that there has been a minor change and apologies I didn't copy

across the arrows that make it easier for members to identify where changes

have taken place, but you will see from the majority of the scores in the annex

that there has been a downward revision of the score for financial sustainability

and for the corporate plan and around resilience in particular and democracy

but rather me talk to you I think probably best to chair if I hand over to

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:41:43

members for any questions they've got on the report. Any questions in the report?

Councillor Len Wilkins - 1:41:51

Councillor Wilkinson, please. Thank you, Chair. Looking at the cyber attack,

what has been coming across my desk has been concerns about AI, which is a very powerful

machine. When it goes rogue, the operators don't seem to know. Are we taking that into

you look at?

Yes, absolutely.

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:42:16

And the wording on cybersecurity risk is

deliberately vague because, as John Chilton,

who's the chief technology officer,

would say we don't want to put into the public domain

all the risks and how we're mitigating them around

cybersecurity, because it kind of might tell us what

our, tell those that are interested in launching

a tech what to do.

But that stance, as John Tolt would call it, is constantly evolving and particularly the

threat from AI.

But we are seeing AI come into the council in terms of FOI requests.

There's been an increase in the number of FOI requests submitted that have been authored

by AI.

So it is a constant and evolving position, but particularly around cyber security.

It's trying to maintain a position where you're either level with or trying to get ahead of those that are perpetrating those types of attacks, which I think John would say there's far more attacks that are prevented and stopped than get through, and that's the position that is set out here.

Any further questions?

Council member Brice.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:43:28

Councillor Ray Brassington - 1:43:30

Just to follow up on that, I mean if it was a cyber attack and all our computer systems

went down, have we got adequate preparations in order for the Council to carry on its functions?

Have we planned for that?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:43:47

So yes, there are plans and part of the work that was done by services in the business

impact assessments, the business continuity plans was to identify what systems needed

to be stood up in the event of a cyber attack and how quickly.

So, for example, there will be some core systems around the financial system, around the planning

system, so that will be part of the preparations that John and the team will be making around

that.

We have, through some of the business continuity testing, taken the financial system down and

then spun it back up again, and that was a successful test, and the same was done with

the revenues and benefits system.

In the event of a significant cyber attack, as has been seen

on other authorities, it's that recovery and how you do that in

a controlled way that's really important, so not rushing to set

things back up.

But certainly our ICT team were involved in the cyber incident

learning from across the city, and were involved in the

response to the cyber incident at Tewkesbury.

So there's a lot of things in terms of how they spin those

systems back up where you're isolating individual things, but that is part of

the business continuity. Part of the other business continuity is then

assessing well if those IT systems cannot be stood up in a safe way, what

is plan B, what is plan C, what is plan D? In the event that we

might need to pay suppliers or pay staff, how would Michelle and I achieve that?

And that would be going back to a manual system with cheques and balances in it.

part of the business continuity is assessing degrees of, I suppose, IT system

outage. So what if some of them came back? What's the minimum that we would need? So

those scenarios are planned for and there's a regular test of elements of

that but the most recent test was on the financial system in terms of what that

would look like.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:45:42

Councillor Craig Thurling - 1:45:44

Councillor Toole. Yes thanks I've got a couple of points actually if that's okay.

One of them is around sort of the financial sustainability in the

procurement side. My favourite topic diesel. Do you know what sort of cost

exposure we've got to diesel at the moment within the fleet and I'll have a

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:46:04

follow -passer that if that's okay. So when the council set its budget which

was in February and that was based on a forecast of fuel prices that was

undertaken in sort of December with ourselves and Yubico as I take pump

price of one pound 44 and within the budget there was a contingency for a

11 pence per litre increase in that.

As you'll be well aware, diesel is not at one pound 44

or even one pound 55.

The pump price is just over two pounds

depending which four -court you visit.

So the council does purchase 508 ,000 litres of fuel.

The arrangements it has with Yupico

because Yupico do the procurement of that.

They use fuel cards at local four -corts.

You'll recall from the council's budget papers

in February 2026, 100 ,000 were set aside

in the capital programme for the revision

of a fuel bunker fuel tank.

That work is ongoing with Yupico to get that in place

because that will provide business continuity

and mitigation to that spot purchasing of fuel.

We will be looking at that during the course

of the budget setting process to make sure

we set the correct estimate.

and I've been drafting the budget strategy document to recognise that there's probably

an additional £230 ,000 pressure for next financial year if the £2 price level is there

for the full year. That would be over and above what we've got in our budget.

There are other mitigations that we may need to explore. As an example, with our electricity

purchases, our energy purchases of gas and electricity, we're part of a consortium, West

Oxfordshire, Cotswold, Cheltenham, Forresterdean.

There is a trigger point at which we will forward

by those energy requirements.

That's not where we are with some of that UBCO fuel

that's required for the vehicles,

but it's something we'll need to consider

should the environment that we're in around fuel prices

be maintained for the foreseeable future.

Any other questions?

Nick, please.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:48:17

Sorry, can I follow up on that one?

Councillor Craig Thurling - 1:48:18

Are you okay with that?

Yes, so thank you. So that was the first point. So it was more...

So I was sort of reading at the weekend where prior to these kicking off from Iran in February,

the oil price was around $60 and what they had this thing called the crack spread,

which is effectively the price of what it costs to convert into diesel and then put it into four corals.

And that was at $20 a barrel. So you're then at $80 a barrel overall,

which is where you got your one pound 40 per litre price of diesel.

That cracks, well the price of oil now is $100 and the crack spread is now $110.

So you're looking at around $210.

So the two pound per litre I don't think is going to get any better any time soon.

If not it might get worse according to sort of industry estimates.

So at what point do you have some sort of what they call demand destruction where you have to pull back services

in order to, because you literally can't afford it or there might be shortages or whatever.

And what happens in those circumstances?

How do you determine who gets what and what you do with it?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:49:23

So I think we're, particularly with our waste and recycling service,

we have a statutory obligation to collect waste and recycling in a particular way.

That's currently done through sending a number of waste and

recycling vehicles around the district, which gives that requirement of 508 ,000 litres.

I would, it would be remiss of me as your section 151 to suggest that if the price of

oil remains where it is, that that becomes so unaffordable that we would need to consider

changing the way that is collected or reducing the frequency of collection, given that would

be a very hard service to change relatively quickly to that pressure. I would be looking

at other ways the council can mitigate that pressure in one service with other options

to balance the budget with changes in another service.

So I don't think we're in the position where we would say to Yubico, you need to stop buying

fuel next week.

We're not going to run any waste and recycling rounds, but we would be saying to Yubico,

how can you ensure that you're optimising those rounds in a way that you're minimising

in the amount of time drivers are spent idling in the cab,

so on and so forth, and there's already ways in which

they're collecting that data and analysing it to identify,

I suppose, poor performance from particular operatives

in terms of the efficiency of those vehicles.

It's all a part of the budgeting exercise

that we're approaching and understanding

what those options are.

So we have, through Yubico, they buy the fuel

because they are running the service. Should we remain in the current fuel price environment,

we will need to work closely with you, Pico, to understand what other options are available

and how sensible those options are from an operational point of view. Because if we suddenly

said right, we're going to put another, let's say, 10 fuel bunkers into a location because

that will hold enough fuel to last a month,

that will change the way in which UBICO

operate that service, because rather than

fueling the vehicles up on a daily basis,

they might, from a particular location,

they'll need to do it in a different way.

So there's a number of different aspects to that,

but we can't do that without working

in partnership with UBICO, and without me,

as your 151, having conversations with

the cabinet member for finance and the leader,

to say this is a particular budget pressure here, that's going to exert this

negative impact on your budget, how are we going to work together to resolve that?

I don't believe the answer would be to reduce service provision in that

instance and I don't think there'll be something politically that the

organisation would want to entertain.

Thank you.

Thank you, David.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 1:52:22

Nick.

Thanks.

Nick Craxton - 1:52:27

I think this might turn into a request for the future,

but bear with me, I guess.

I guess I look at this and I find it quite hard to get much

context from this report because, you know, on the face

of it, if I look at a report that says health and safety

is red and it was red previously and it hasn't improved.

On the face of it, that feels sort of an unacceptable

position, but actually if I look at the scoring, it's telling

me it's a high impact and a medium likelihood.

That kind of almost writes itself and it might always

be that, you know.

So I guess what I'm asking is, you know, in the future can

we get sort of more detail on the risks driving this,

the risk events, you know.

So I don't know looking at this, the background of the health

and safety, is there a specific problem, are there risk events,

i .e. injuries and deaths that have occurred

that are a problem we need to clearly correct?

Or is it just that's a kind of enduring risk, you know,

it's very important.

I guess there's, for me there's that missing bit to kind

of understand and then I guess on some of these particularly,

point to kind of like the BCPs and the BIAs,

so will they be shared with this committee

so that we can kind of assess.

It's very well saying we have a plan.

I guess it feels like if we want to kind of have that level

of scrutiny, somebody should be looking at the plan and kind

of understanding and putting out, you know, is it worth

the paper it's written on, I guess.

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:54:03

So there's a number of different points now I'm trying

to address most of them.

So I think you used the word scrutiny of business

continuity plans, business impact assessments. The role for this committee

is around ensuring the risk register is effective, it's covering those risks,

you're content that the risk management policy is fit for purpose. It is not to

scrutinise whether that risk mitigation is adequate, I think that is moving into

overview and scrutiny committee territory and that's where I think some

of those issues around was the council's response to the major incident that was declared last

weekend adequate. I think that's where I would see that rather than this committee. In terms

of I suppose the risk appetite or the risk scores, so something scored a 15, it's been

15 for the last three reports. There is a column on here and perhaps it needs to be

says risk acceptance level. Now, on the whole, we've got risk reduction as on the financial

sustainability. So that would indicate, and perhaps it's not as clear as it could be,

that having a score initially of 16 and reducing that down to nine at the last thing, we're

trying to mitigate that down. There will be some that will be scored as acceptance. So

there is one around inability to recruit and retain staff.

That is around accepting and retention of that risk.

There is certain things the council can do.

There are certain things the council can't do.

It can't make me, if I decide I'm going to another job,

it can't, unless it wants to convince me

one way or another, I make that individual decision.

The council can only, or individual can only

influence that to a degree.

There has been some discussion with the chair at the run

through this report whether or not we include a target risk

score.

So it's one thing saying the risk is 16, it's currently

scored at nine, where do we think it should be?

Now, the challenge with that is then you get three scores to

look at, which is the one that we're asking you as members to

focus on.

Then you get the issue of optimism bias.

So I could say, well, for this particular example of financial

sustainability, I think the target should be at four.

But how I get there is really important to be spelt out,

and the gap between where it's currently scored and that target

is also important to understand.

So is the target appropriate?

So if you've got a very highly scored risk and your target is

very low scored, that may be suggesting that there's a bit of

optimism that you can mitigate those things away.

How much of that mitigation is within the control of the

council, particularly going back to the health and safety issue,

there will always be a risk that some of the activities the

council undertakes or its partners undertakes may result

in very, very exceptional circumstances,

some risk around injury or death.

What we're trying to do with that risk is mitigate the

likelihood of it as low as possible, the impact will still

be the same.

So the target risk score for that might only be a five, where

you've got a five in terms of impact, it's like it is a one.

So it's something that I think we will reflect on as a

corporate leadership team and take some views from members

about whether we include a target risk score.

Some authorities do, some authorities don't.

I think the more we include on this, the smaller we'll make it

and it becomes less clear.

So there's a balance between giving members meaningful

information in a format that you can actually read,

but also appreciate that you're highlighting that if something's

been scored a particular way, that's not giving you much

evidence or much comfort in itself.

So we'll take that away and consider that.

Thanks.

Nick Craxton - 1:58:15

Just to follow up on the health and safety one, for example.

I understand that.

I don't think we need necessarily a target score.

I get everything you're saying.

If we take that example, though, I guess the bit that I don't have

from this, so it's always going to be a five because death will

always be the highest.

You know, you've got a risk avoidance.

I can't imagine there's any entity anywhere that would not

have a health and safety death risk avoidance policy, you know.

So, do you see what I mean?

It can become, it's at risk of becoming a little bit generic.

And so what, the only thing that I can look to on here, as you

said, is the likelihood score of three.

So I guess what I feel would be useful is what is driving that like, because that in this that's the key thing, what's driving the likelihood.

And therefore is, you know, is what's the council doing? I get this point about like overlapping into the scrutiny remit.

But otherwise, what are we looking at? Otherwise, it just becomes a piece of paper with, yes, you've put the key things on and they have a number against them.

But that's kind of very quantitative rather than qualitative.

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 1:59:23

If it helps, what we have got when we do the assessment of the scoring is against the impact

and likelihood, some narrative that says, particularly in likelihood, has this happened?

Is it likely to happen in the next 10 years?

Has it happened within the last one or to three years?

Has it happened at a neighbouring authority?

It's that type of assessment.

So that's when the scoring comes in.

So it's probably going to be quite helpful for the committee to understand

when something scored a three, which might say there is a likelihood or it has happened

somewhere in the last one to three years, that will give you an indication of what is

driving that assessment.

Councillor Wilkinson.

Councillor Len Wilkins - 2:00:01

Thank you, Chair. I would be happier if under LGR the initial draught of internal audit had

some sort of reference to the fact it was taken before the pause button was

pressed. I could read that if that oh everything's fine equally we're not

taking into account pause so I wondered if there should be some sort of notation.

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 2:00:35

I didn't quite catch all of that in terms of the LGR question.

Councillor Len Wilkins - 2:00:42

Sorry. One of the things is if I read that as an outsider, it says,

oh, the staff role being support is positive.

However, that was done before staff knew it was going to be paused.

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 2:00:57

So the risk register was in terms of this is the same one that went to cabinet, was

done before. So we have as a CLT been reviewing I suppose these risks with that lens for a

better way of putting it. LGR presents both a challenge and an opportunity. So a challenge

might be that we've been trying to mitigate staff retention by offering fixed term contracts,

but those fixed -term contracts may now be more difficult to have in place if LGR is

delayed. Some staff may see the pause as, well, I've got more certainty that there's

a job here than there isn't a job somewhere else. So there's a period of assessment we're

making. I think until we get an indication from the government towards the end of next

week whether the pause is a slight pause or a longer -term

pause, it's difficult for us then to assess what else we

could do to mitigate that risk.

But it's absolutely appropriate, I suppose, to reflect on has the

LGR pause made any of these risks more risky.

I think it makes the mitigation more challenging.

I don't think it changes the risk definition or the risk

scoring but our ability to recruit and retain staff, maintain service standards

if some of the workforce is feeling a little less comfortable that's what's

going to be the challenge and how we respond to that I think was covered on

some of the earlier gender items in terms of the internal audit report on

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 2:02:35

staff well -being. Sorry if I can add something to that. That could be and the

risk has been created, but we don't see that reflected in the report.

So probably what Councillor Wilkinson was talking about, so they had been reflected

in that.

Also he mentions in May's reference to fraud, a fraud risk, they saw it's not reflected

here, but I presume that that is to do with the cut -off dates.

Is that correct?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 2:03:10

So in terms of the LGR risk, I suppose the view was it would be better to indicate to

members that we'd considered there to be a change to the risk environment because of

LGR and not mention it at all because this is, in a sense, the same report that Cabinet

considered.

So by putting that in, it's probably posed more questions than it's answered.

In terms of the risk on fraud, that I will look at.

I know we have deescalated one particular risk around PCI DSS compliance and that's reported in the report.

I'll cheque where we got to with fraud because I can't see where that is in the report.

Any further questions?

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 2:04:02

Councillor Craig Thurling - 2:04:06

I might be misplacing it because I can't see it on here.

Do you think there should be on here one about planning enforcement or lack of because there

is a multitude of outstanding cases that are open, hundreds probably.

I know I've got at least four or five on the go myself and I'm just concerned that

Under resourced or understaffed or you know, this this is real people's lives

So I've been contacted at least once twice a month about

You know, what's the progress on this?

So you you send off the emails and it goes into sort of a black hole now

It's not a criticism of the officers themselves

But I think they're obviously not in a position where they can do their due diligence on every single case

but just wouldn't that's that's quite a big risk to the community because you

know these applications have a real impact on their lives and it's not

having the information or any closure I think is is quite important for them to

resolve.

I'm going to

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 2:05:07

and

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 2:05:16

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 2:05:28

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 2:05:29

In terms, so I'll offer my view as to whether, I do not think it's a strategic risk.

I think there's a service risk.

There is a risk that we've already got around service standards and we can, as part of the

ongoing review of the strategic risk register, ensure that's covered.

I think what you're highlighting is a particular issue around service standards on planning

enforcement and there's probably some other examples.

What the strategic risk registry is trying to do is capture those high level risks that

we think are of the most significant for the council that's going to either lead to reputational

damage, financial damage, and I think there's an argument that you can make around enforcement

that the reputational damage could be to the council,

but it's generally those who are raising the issue

of enforcement, whereas the majority of the residents,

when you compare that to the failure of us to collect

their waste and recycling, will have a wider impact.

It's one that I think we need to reflect on.

I know the leader wants to say something,

because I know the leader has been considering our current

position on planning enforcement and is looking

at that more widely.

I think if we pass over to them.

Yeah, we're going to pass to the leader.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 2:06:49

We were trying to get the mic open for the leader of the council.

So just going to pass it off.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Councillor Stirling.

Councillor Mike Evemy - 2:07:02

Yes, I wanted to comment not on the risk register point specifically,

as David's spoken to that, but just about the,

and I heard it raised earlier by Councillor Wilkins as well.

And I suppose I want to give some reassurance to the committee that it is an area of focus

for the administration.

As you may recall, we have brought a specialist in that area in to work on this with us.

And he is working with the officers to prepare.

And he's due to come back to the overview and scrutiny committee in January with a report

on progress and what he's doing and what changes that he might seek for us to

make. So I suppose to reassure members of this committee that the Ovian

Scrutiny Committee is focused on that and I think as it's a service

performance issue that's where it should appropriately sit if I can say that. But

yeah just to give reassurance to members that you know we recognise that the

performance of that service has not been where it should be. We as an

administration have invested in extra capacity to deal with it and you know we

hopeful having that person in post that he will be able to

improve working with

see us as

The senior management be able to see the improvements in the service. I'm sure we all want to see

So yeah, it's not something that isn't being actively worked upon

it is and members of the Opium Scrutiny Committee are very much looking at what

we're doing and as the cabinet we are working supporting the work to make sure

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 2:08:51

that we do get that improvement that members are asking for. Any further

Councillor Craig Thurling - 2:08:58

questions? Last one it's on the civil contingencies and I think at the last

committee meeting we mentioned about whether it be picked up as this

committee or the overview and scrutiny committee about who would be taking the

lead on sort of well making sure that people are aware in the community and

what the plans are whether it's particular ward or across the whole

district as a whole whether it's a multi -agency approach. Given the issues

that happened down at IAF Fairford you know I think the CDC's did outstanding

in work in terms of the support they provided, but I imagine they were quite detailed plans

around that particular scenario. So somewhere in the North Cotswolds where you might have

40 or 50 people in a particular village and some of them are quite vulnerable or elderly

or whatever and they don't have access to the internet or have that sort of support

network in place, it's working out what support are they entitled to, but also as well how

we let them know in anticipation of global events that might be coming our way in the

future or not, but it's all particularly things like Thames Water in Syrinsester.

Where would they go?

How would they get the support they needed?

I think we haven't really got that answer about who is responsible for that sort of

scrutiny side, I think.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 2:10:13

David, would you like to?

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 2:10:16

I think this is something that overview and scrutiny will consider, not for auditing governance.

I think the risk we've got is around the preparedness for a major event, and I think we had that last weekend.

And in particular, it's the ability for the council to respond to a major incident as part of a multi -agency team.

So there are well -documented plans that the local resilience forum has in place.

They were stood up at that particular weekend and the council stood up its rest centre plan

at San Francisco Leisure Centre and it's currently chairing the recovery cell as part of that major incident.

So the major incident has run its course.

The key part, which is our responsibility as a local authority, is that recovery.

And that recovery cell, or that recovery programme, is being led by the Chief Executive, Jane Portman.

And we have a really key role to play in that.

In terms of how we respond to major incidents, the LRF has

quite a detailed procedures manual that sets out the

different levels of response.

Gold, silver, bronze in its old language or strategic, tactical

in terms of how it refers to it now is a warning and informing

process so that that's around how we communicate.

Part of the response is also considering the vulnerable people and how that gets addressed.

I think in the example that's being provided, does the council have a plan for every conceivable

type of event that could happen?

It will largely depend on who the lead agency is, and in the examples you've given of the

siren system, it was Thames Water that was a lead agency.

We can make contact with them and help them with that,

but we're not those that are responsible

for delivering that response.

We can help inform and help highlight

where they could direct resources,

but that remains an operational decision

for that body that's providing that response.

I appreciate some of the comments being made

about how do we ensure that vulnerable residents

that don't have access to the usual methods

of communication, how are they made aware?

But the nature of those incidents could be it affects a handful of people, it affects

a wide number.

But I think that would be entirely appropriate for overview and scrutiny committee given

the recent event that we had in Fairford to consider how well the council's business continuity

plans for a non -major incident are and how would it ensure that its residents are communicated

with.

There will be certain events that happen that there is no plan for because you can't plan for every eventuality.

But I think what was demonstrated over the weekend in question is that the Council is well placed to make that response and play its part as a multi -agency responder to those events.

Please, Mike.

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 2:13:25

Councillor Mike Evemy - 2:13:27

Thank you. Yeah, just to pick up and follow up on what David has just said. I

have asked the Chief Executive to, obviously she's our lead as the lead

officer of the council, to work with officers to have an all member briefing

on emergencies and how they operate so that all members are aware. So the

questions that you're asking, Craig, you know, you can, we can have that discussion

in a private setting where we may not want to discuss all the scenarios in

public that could possibly occur. But yeah, there'll be an opportunity hopefully in the

pretty soon future to have an all -member briefing on it and for people to ask more detailed

questions and get an understanding about what the role is of us as councillors vis -a -vis

officers in the process as well and to make sure that everyone is aware and understands

their roles.

Any further questions?

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 2:14:21

Right, so I am going to, well, before I close,

I'm going to close this item before I move

on to the last item on the agenda.

So thank you on this one.

Please note that the committee has reviewed the strategic risk

will be recorded in a minute. Thank you, Taylor.

14 Proposal to Appoint New Member of the Standards Hearings Sub-Committee

Okay, so last item on the agenda is item 14. There is the proposal to

appoint new member of the Standards Hearing Subcommittee. So we're replacing

the proposal is to replace Councillor Bridges with Councillor Turling as a

member of the Standards Hearing Subcommittee. All those in favour, please. Thank you. That's agreed.

Thank you.

And we're just coming to the end of the meeting then.

15 Date of Next Meeting

Thank you to all committee members and officers and members

of the public for having joined us today.

Thank you.

Bye.

Thank you.

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Interactive webcast player

Audit & Governance CommitteeMonday, 5th October 2026 at 4:00pm

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:00:00

1 Apologies

Tyler Jardine, Officer - 0:01:23

2 Substitute Members

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:01:31

Tyler Jardine, Officer - 0:01:37

3 Declarations of Interest

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:01:47

4 Minutes

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:02:01

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:03:17

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:03:33

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:05:56

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:07:30

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:07:55

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:08:05

6 Member Questions

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:08:22

7 Audit and Governance Committee Work Plan

Tyler Jardine, Officer - 0:09:58

Tyler Jardine, Officer - 0:10:41

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:10:43

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:10:48

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:10:50

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:10:54

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:11:29

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:11:32

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:11:33

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:13:07

Tyler Jardine, Officer - 0:13:16

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:13:51

8 2026/27 Annual Governance Statement Action Plan - Update

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:15:30

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:20:11

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:20:17

Councillor Jeremy Theyer - 0:20:18

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:21:21

Councillor Len Wilkins - 0:22:01

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:22:09

Councillor Ray Brassington - 0:22:15

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:22:19

Councillor Craig Thurling - 0:22:31

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:22:59

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:24:06

Nick Craxton - 0:24:08

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:24:25

Nick Craxton - 0:26:37

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:26:56

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:28:24

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:28:50

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:29:26

Councillor Craig Thurling - 0:29:28

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:29:57

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:32:11

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:32:23

Officer - 0:33:24

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:34:00

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:34:06

Councillor Len Wilkins - 0:34:08

Officer - 0:34:44

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:35:10

Councillor Ray Brassington - 0:35:13

Officer - 0:35:28

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:35:34

Councillor Ray Brassington - 0:36:41

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:37:03

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:37:19

Councillor Nick Bridges - 0:37:28

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:37:52

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:38:20

Councillor Craig Thurling - 0:38:24

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:39:23

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:39:27

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:42:02

Councillor Craig Thurling - 0:42:05

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:42:54

Councillor Helene Mansilla - 0:44:16

David Stanley, Deputy CEO - 0:44:19

Audit & Governance Committee
Monday, 5th October 2026 at 4:00pm