Agenda item

Risk Management Annual Report 2017/18 and Look Forward 2018/19

 

The Service Director (Financial Services) will submit a report summarising the activity in 2017/18 towards the achievement of the goals and objectives set out in the Council’s Risk Management Policy and signposting further work to be undertaken in 2018/19.

 

Minutes:

The Service Director (Financial Services) submitted a report summarising the activity in 2017/18 towards the achievement of the goals and objectives set out in the Council’s Risk Management Policy and signposting further work to be undertaken in in 2018/19.

 

The report, which was presented by Mr A Hunt, Risk and Governance Manager, indicated that the Framework was currently under review and would be considered by the Committee later in the year.  He continued to lead on the provision of Risk Management, Insurance and Corporate Governance activities within the Council and had some considerable success during the year.

 

All risks were logged on the Council’s Strategic Risk Register and had been reviewed and updated twice during 2017/18.  In addition, the Council’s Risk Profile had slightly decreased.

 

The Council’s previous Risk Management Database had been replaced and ‘SharePoint’ was now being used to publish all operational risk registers and this was proving to be advantageous to all users and was assisting in the dissemination of information.

 

The 2017/18 Annual Governance Review had been completed and the subsequent Annual Governance Statement had been singed and approved.

 

In the ensuing discussion the following matters were highlighted:

 

·         It was noted that the number of risks had increased during the period which was in part due to registers being published in SharePoint.  This new arrangement had raised the profile, encouraged engagement which in turn had led to an increase in the number of risk register reviews taking place

·         Because of the increased engagement, it was possible that a number or risk register reviews may be outstanding, however, the Risk and Governance Manager was in the process of attending all Departmental Management Team meetings and it was hoped, therefore, that all would be complete by the end of the year

·         The report provided a breakdown of project risks by category as at June, 2018.  It was noted that whilst there had been a significant increase in the number of Category 1 & 2 red risks, these were project related rather than strategic.  A detailed discussion ensued during which reference was made to the need to be provided with additional information on the types and categories of risks, those risks over which it had limited control (such as those relating to Brexit) together with mitigation factors introduced.  The Risk and Governance Manager agreed to provide additional information; however, he assured members that mitigations were not ‘slipping’.  The Authority was better at identifying and logging risks but it was also undertaking projects that had perhaps more inherent underlying risks.

·         In response to detailed questioning, the Risk and Governance Manager explained the rationale for moving from a bespoke risk management database to Excel which was then saved into SharePoint and the benefits to be gained from this

 

RESOLVED:

 

(i)         That the Risk Management Annual Report, and the assurances provided, as part of the overall consideration of the Council’s control framework for the purposes of the Annual Governance Statement, be noted; and

 

(ii)        That the Committee receive further periodic reports during the year to monitor the progress in achieving the actions identified for 2018/19

Supporting documents:

 

A - Z Directory