Agenda and draft minutes

In the event of a fire, please await direction from the venue staff who will help assist with the evacuation. Please do not return to the building until instructed to do so by the fire warden(s).

The evacuation procedure was noted.

To receive apologies for absence from Members and to note any substitute members present.

Apologies for absence had been received from Cllr Mark Bradshaw, Cllr Matthew Riddle and Cllr Hal McFie.

Cllr Trevor Jones attended as substitute on behalf of Cllr Matthew Riddle.  Cllr Winston Duguid attended as substitute on behalf of Cllr Hal McFie.

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.

There were no declarations of interest declared under the Localism Act 2011.

The Audit Committee to elect a Vice-Chair from amongst its members for Municipal Year 2022/23 (item deferred from the last meeting).

The Committee were requested to elect a Vice-Chair for Municipal Year 2022/23. 

Councillor David Wilcox indicated that he was willing to stand for this position.  This nomination was proposed by Councillor Geoff Gollop and seconded by Councillor Sarah Classick.  There were no other candidates.  On a show of hands it was unanimously

Agreed: That Councillor David Wilcox be elected as Vice-Chair of the West of England Combined Authority for Municipal Year 2022/23.

To receive any announcements from the Chair of the Audit Committee.

There were no Chair’s announcements although the Chair did circulate a statement to Committee members in advance of the meeting in respect to Item 8 which is reproduced under that item.

To endorse and ratify the minutes of the inquorate meeting held on 12 October 2022.

The minutes of the inquorate meeting held on 12 October 2022 were agreed and endorsed subject to the following additions:

·       In respect of Item 10 the Committee requested that CRSTS be added to the list of items for a possible ‘deep dive’ study by Auditors.

·       The Committee also requested that the risk register relating to buses and the forward plan of future items be brought to the next meeting.

WRITTEN PUBLIC QUESTIONS (written procedure)

1. Any member of the public can submit a maximum of two written questions in advance of 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 11 November 2022.

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 the Combined Authority’s committee procedures, there is no opportunity for oral supplementary questions to be asked at committee meetings.

6. The written questions and replies will be circulated to committee members in advance of the meeting and published on the Combined Authority 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 16 November 2022. 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 Combined Authority website.

5. Please note:

If any member of the public wishes to attend the meeting to orally present their statement, they are asked please to notify the Combined Authority’s Democratic Services team of this at the point when their statement is submitted and by 12 noon on the working day before the meeting at the very latest.

For those presenting their statements at the meeting, up to 3 minutes ‘speaking time’ is permitted for each statement. The total time available for the public session at this meeting is 30 minutes.

Five statements had been received from Members of the Public in advance of the meeting.  These statements had been published and circulated.

One member of the public attended the meeting and addressed the Committee for up to three minutes on the topic of his statement as follows:

·       Joe Aldous, local bus services.

The Chair of the Committee stated that he, in consultation with the Chair of the Authority’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee, would ensure that the situation with local bus services be looked into as a matter of urgency with the Committee’s using their powers to influence decision-making where possible whilst noting the possible significant reputational risk the situation posed for the Authority.  The statements received would be referred to the Metro Mayor for his attention as the local decision-maker.

To consider the written recommendations of the Auditors VfM report on Governance issued by the Combined Authority’s External Auditor.

The West of England Combined Authority Audit Committee were requested to consider a report and submit their views upon a report prepared for the Combined Authority’s Committee meeting, called under section 24 (Schedule 7) of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. A recommendation under

Schedule 7 required the Combined Authority to discuss and respond publicly

to the report and the Committee would meeting on the rise of the Audit Committee.  The report was asking the Combined Authority Committee to consider the written recommendations of the Auditors VfM report on Governance issued by the Combined Authority’s External Auditor.  A series of recommendations were set out together with an action plan in response to the Audit (Appendix 1).  The VfM report was attached to the report at Appendix 2.  Jon Roberts, Barrie Morris and Tom Foster attended the meeting on behalf of Grant Thornton and set out the findings of the report in detail.

The Chair had submitted a statement in respect of this item which had been circulated to the members of the Committee prior to the meeting as follows:

There are so many potential issues raised, that I thought it might be worth outlining the areas that I feel we need to focus on.

Just to be clear, I am not trying to stop members raising other issues, but I do feel we need to focus if we are to be effective.

As a committee our initial concerns were around the severance matter and these were raised in September 2021, the wider governance issues arose later in the autumn and were discussed at both scrutiny and audit committee.

The severance matter remains a concern as the role of Monitoring and 151 officer should have been a critical check and balance in the decision-making process. I believe we are all agreed on that and see the intended publication of the protocol as recognition of that.

Whilst it is important those lessons are learnt and such a situation is never allowed to happen again, further detailed discussion is unlikely to produce any better outcome. I suggest we note the seriousness of the failure to use statutory officers and urge the immediate adoption and publication of the new protocol.

I suggest we then move on to the wider governance issues for the bulk of our discussion. I know all members will have views on those issues, but I suggest we don’t try to redo the excellent work that the auditors have done!

I give a few comments below which indicate my own views

I suggest we focus on the Auditors recommendations and the officers’ responses to those recommendations. Are the responses specific enough to deliver measurable improvement? I suggest that we try to focus on the action plan and require officers to set measurable indicators rather than informal promises, and that we emphasise the importance of co-working on all aspects of the authority’s decision making including its responses to this auditor’s report.

It is depressing that it has taken 14 months for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Committee is requested to discuss the key findings and other matters arising from the statutory audit of the West of England Combined Authority for year ending 31 March 2022.

The Committee were asked to note a report which provided the West of England Audit Committee with Grant Thornton’s Audit Findings for the West of England Combined Authority for year ending 31 March 2022. The Audit Finding’s report included the following key information:

·       Financial Statements

·       Significant Risks

·       Key Judgements and Estimates

·       Value for Money Arrangements

The Interim Director of Investment and Corporate Services stated that there had been an issued identified relating to a land purchase which had been accounted for in the wrong accounting period and for which an adjustment had been made.  The Auditor’s were investigating whether this applied to any other transactions.

The following issues were identified:

·       Actuaries had been assisting with the work on pensions’ liabilities.

·       Investigative work was undertaken with journal entries to identify bot the poster and the approver, although it was noted that only the appropriate officers could approve such entries – the follow-up work on the auto-reversing was set out in Appendix B;

·       The Audit work was carried out in accordance with requirements with further investigations if necessary with the VfM and Governance work;

The Committee agreed that the Chair should sign off the final accounts on behalf of the Committee.

Agreed:

(1)   That the External Auditor’s VfM report be noted;

(2)   That the Chair of the Audit Committee be authorised to sign off the accounts on behalf of the Committee.

To Update the Committee on Internal Audit work in 2022/23.  A response from management is attached at Appendix 2.

Tariq Rahman and Jeff Wring, Audit West (Internal Audit) submitted a report updating the Committee on the Internal Audit work 2022/23.  The report summarised the first six months of audit work and a further report would be brought to the Committee.  Work planned for 2023/24 would be reported to a future meeting.

Internal Audit had undertaken a review of the risks and controls related to Concessionary Travel and assessed the framework of internal control at level 2. A total of 6 audit recommendations had been detailed in the Action Plan attached at Appendix 1.  The management response to these recommendations was attached at Appendix 2.   Management confirmed that the focus was on integration and improvement issues including agreements wit UAs and North Somerset Council.  The Government reimbursed the cost of carrying a concessionary fare passenger using a formula.  It was noted that there were no plans to alter the 9am start for use of a concessionary travel card.

Agreed: That the areas under review be noted and the progress against

the Internal Audit plan as of 20 October 2022 be noted.