Agenda

To receive apologies for absence from Members.

Apologies have been received in advance of the meeting from Cllr Tom Davies.  The Committee is therefore invited to elect a Vice-Chair for this meeting only.

Members who consider that they have an interest to declare are asked to: a) State the item number in which they have an interest, b) The nature of the interest, c) Whether the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest, non-disclosable pecuniary interest or non-pecuniary interest. Any Member who is unsure about the above should seek advice from the Monitoring Officer prior to the meeting in order to expedite matters at the meeting itself.

To consider and approve the minutes from 27 February 2020 of the West of England Combined Authority Audit Committee.

Note:  WECA virtual public committee meetings are currently being arranged as ‘Zoom’ video conferencing meetings, broadcast on the WECA YouTube channel.

Please note: the 17 July 2020 WECA Audit Committee will be broadcast at this link:

https://youtu.be/WYOcPWiEpns

WRITTEN PUBLIC QUESTIONS

1. Any member of the public can submit a maximum of two written questions to this WECA virtual public committee meeting.

2. The deadline for the submission of questions is 5.00 pm, at least 3 clear working days ahead of a meeting.  For the 17 July 2020 meeting of the WECA Audit Committee the deadline for questions is 5.00 pm on Monday 13 July 2020.

3. Questions should be addressed to the Chair of the committee and e-mailed to democratic.services@westofengland-ca.gov.uk

4. Under the direction of the Chair, wherever possible, written replies to questions will be sent to questioners by the end of the working day prior to the meeting.

5. Please note - under WECA committee procedures, there is no opportunity for oral supplementary questions to be asked at committee meetings.

6. Questions and replies will be circulated to committee members in advance of the meeting and published on the WECA website.

PUBLIC STATEMENTS

1. Any member of the public may submit a statement (or petition) at a WECA virtual public committee meeting.

2. Please note that one statement per individual is permitted.

3. Statements must be submitted in writing and received by the deadline of 12 noon on the working day before the meeting. For the 17 July meeting of the WECA Audit Committee, the deadline for statements is 12 noon on Thursday 16 July 2020.

Statements should be emailed to

democratic.services@westofengland-ca.gov.uk

4. Statements will be listed for the meeting in the order of receipt. All statements will be sent to committee members in advance of the meeting and published on the WECA website.

5. Please note – if any member of the public wishes to ‘attend’ the virtual meeting to orally present their statement, they are asked please to notify the WECA Democratic Services team of this by 12 noon on the working day before the meeting at latest.

6. In presenting a statement at the meeting, members of the public are generally permitted to speak for up to 3 minutes each if they so wish. The total time available for the public session at this meeting is 30 minutes. Within the time available, every effort will be made to enable individuals to verbally present their statements; at the discretion of the Chair, speaking time may sometimes be reduced depending on how many public items are received.

Any member of the public in the West of England Combined Authority may present a petition at a West of England Combined Authority Audit Meeting.

The purpose of this report is to contribute towards the effective two-way communication between the Combined Authority’s external auditors and Audit Committee (as those charged with governance). The report covers some important areas of the auditor risk assessment where Grant Thornton, WECAs appointed auditors, are required to make inquiries of the Audit Committee under auditing standards.

It is the responsibility of the audit committee to formally approve the authority’s annual Statement of Accounts. This report contains the draft narrative report which is the important opening section of the accounts explaining the activities and performance throughout the 2019/20 financial year.

It is the responsibility of the audit committee to formally approve the authority’s annual Statement of Accounts. This report contains the Annual Governance Statement which is an integral section of the accounts detailing the framework, and effectiveness, of the authority’s governance arrangements.

This is the Annual Report of the Internal Audit service detailing progress against the Plan, a summary of audit performance and key issues, as well as the formal opinion on the internal control framework.

To present the Internal Audit Plan for 2020/21 for approval.

Public Sector Audit Appointments, (PSAA), commissions auditors to provide audits that are compliant with the National Audit Office’s Code of Audit Practice (‘the Code’). PSAA is required by s16 of the Local Audit (Appointing Person) Regulations 2015 (the Regulations) to set the scale fees by the start of the financial year, and they published the 2020/21 scale fees on their website on 31 March 2020. The PSAA letter attached to this report provides key updates and information on audit matters in response to Covid.

Grant Thornton’s report on the impact of Covid-19 on financial reporting in the local government sector.

Attached for information only