Agenda

To receive apologies for absence from Members.

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 the 16 October 2020 meeting 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 10 December 2020 West of England Combined Authority Audit Committee will be broadcast via this link:

https://youtu.be/x-9sxSkMDQg

WRITTEN PUBLIC QUESTIONS

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

2. The deadline for the submission of questions is 5.00 pm, at least 3 clear working days ahead of a meeting. For this meeting, the deadline for questions is 5.00 pm on Friday 4 December 2020.

3. Questions should be addressed to the Chair of the meeting 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 written statement (or petition) to this 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 this meeting, the deadline for statements is 12 noon on Wednesday 9 December 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.

The Grant Thornton Annual Audit Letter summarises the key findings arising from the work that they have carried out at the West of England Combined Authority for the year ended 31 March 2020.

The Letter provides a commentary on the results of Grant Thornton’s work to the Authority and external stakeholders, and to highlight issues that they wish to draw to the attention of the public.

Also included is the 2019/20 ‘Audit Findings Report’ highlighting updated information received since the draft report was presented to the audit committee on 16 October 2020.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy’s, (CIPFA), Treasury Management in the Public Services Code of Practice, requires the authority to approve a Treasury Management Strategy before the start of each financial year. The 2021/22 Strategy will be submitted to the January 2021 WECA Committee for approval alongside the 2021/22 budget papers.

To update the Committee on Internal Audit work in 2020/21.