Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Galer and Stenhouse.

There were no declarations of interest given at the meeting.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 6^th October 2025 were confirmed as a true and accurate record.

The Committee received and considered the report from the Head of Internal Audit.

The Head of Internal Audit reported on the progress made in relation to the delivery of the Annual Audit Plan for 2025/26 and progress with implementing recommendations.

There are 19 audits in the 2025/26 Internal Audit Plan which is progressing with one audit behind schedule, two completed audits, two audits have been deferred, three have been cancelled and one new audit, Follow Up of Health and Safety Statutory Compliance checks, has been added as a Limited Assurance opinion was provided in 2024/25 audit and assurance on progress with actions is required.

There are 52 outstanding recommendations, 4 urgent, 25 important and 23 routine. The number of outstanding audit recommendations is slowly decreasing.

Councillor Wainwright commented that the Housing Rents audit was behind schedule, and this was brought to Scrutiny last week where the arrears were discussed. Councillor Wainwright asked who the contractor was. The Head of Internal Audit, Teresa Sharman, advised that the audit had been outsourced to BDO and the delay was due to officers being on annual leave. Fieldwork is ongoing and BDO are waiting for additional information to be supplied to complete testing.  A meeting has been arranged for this week. Councillor Wainwright further commented that there were a number of residents with arrears of more than £1500 and it was important to make sure that this was kept on top of and the Council is doing as much as we can to help.

Councillor Wainwright referred to the implementation dates of the Community Safety ASB action plan and asked whether items 1 and 7, which both had implementation dates of 30^th September, item 12 which had an implementation date of 30^th November 2025 and item 13 which is due to be completed by 31^st December 2025 had been completed. Teresa advised that these questions needed to be answered by the officers responsible. The Monitoring Officer advised Members that they could have asked for the Head of Environmental Services to come to the meeting to discuss the outstanding items and asked Members whether they would like this to be added to the Work Programme, and James to be invited to the March meeting of the Committee.

Councillor Wainwright asked whether the Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) referred to in the recommendation included ASB within the Council’s housing stock. The Monitoring Officer advised that ASB falls under the remit of both Environmental Health and Tenancy. It may be that both types of ASB may be combined into one policy. Councillor Newcombe concurred with Councillor Wainwright that it was quite a damning report and requested that James Wilson, Head of Environmental Services be invited to the March meeting of the Audit, Risk and Standards Committee.

ACTION: James Wilson to be invited to the March meeting of the Audit, Risk and Standards Committee – to be completed by Democratic Services Officer.

RESOLVED:-

That Committee:

Received the progress update relating to the Internal Audit Plan for 2025/26 and approved the changes to the plan.

The Committee received and considered the report from the Monitoring Officer, Caroline Whatling.

Two candidates had been interviewed, and it was recommended that Mr Philip Scott was appointed as an Independent Person to the Audit, Risk and Standards Committee. 

Councillor Wainwright asked whether Mr Scott would be able to attend the March meeting of the Audit, Risk and Standards Committee once the report had been taken to Council in January and was advised that this would be the case.

RESOLVED:-

That Committee recommend to Council the appointment of Mr Philip Scott as an Independent Person to the Audit, Risk and Standards Committee.

The Committee received and considered the report from the Monitoring Officer, Caroline Whatling.

The new Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) introduced provisions to reform and tackle economic crime; improve transparency and created a new corporate offence of a failure to prevent fraud. ECCTA has implications for the Council due to (i) its ownership and control of various local authority trading companies; and (ii) as a ‘large’ organisation, capable of committing the corporate offence. The Council owns/controls a number of local authority trading companies including Equinox Enterprises Limited, Equinox Property Holdings Limited and Great Yarmouth Services Limited and (ii) is it a large organisation as defined by ECCTA.

Councillor Capewell asked how this would be embedded into day-to-day practices. The Monitoring Officer advised that nplaw would be instructed to prepare briefing papers for officers acting as company directors and also officers who undertake HR/Finance support for these companies and to ensure understanding.

RESOLVED:-

That Committee:

1. Noted this report’s contents including recognition of the Council’s ECCTA responsibilities and the new corporate offence of the failure to prevent fraud;
   
   
2. Approved the updated form of the Anti-fraud, Corruption & Bribery Policy (Appendix 1)

3. Agreed ECCTA compliance should be implemented across the Council itself and its owned and controlled companies via the updated policy and by taking the following actions:

3.1 Nplaw to be instructed to produce briefing papers on ECCTA responsibilities for officers when acting in their capacity as company directors and generally for HR/Finance staff, to ensure understanding; and

3.2 by Committee reviewing this policy annually and reporting on ECCTA compliance steps, such as implementing necessary fraud prevention measures; staff training and incorporating of ECCTA requirements into Company Shareholder Agreements.

The Monitoring Officer updated Members regarding the Self-Assessment Action Plan. It was agreed that the Action Plan would be added to the Work Programme.

ITEM 5 – Audit Committee to meet privately with the external auditors and head of internal audit each year. 

ACTION: Democratic Services Officer to arrange a meeting to take place in May 2026.

ITEM 8 - Arrange training to address training needs of Audit Committee Members.

The Financial Services Manager, Lorna Snow advised that a training session would take place prior to the February meeting and suggested another training session regarding Internal Audit after the March meeting.

Councillor Wainwright commented that the membership of the Committee may change following the AGM and that training should commence once this is known.

The Head of Internal Audit advised that it would be good to keep the Committee stable and build on the knowledge already acquired.

ITEM 14: Evaluate whether and how the Audit Committee is adding value to the Council by completing the 2^nd CIPFA assessment tool, ‘evaluating effectiveness of the audit committee’

The Head of Internal Audit suggested that this should take place once training had been completed.

The Work Programme was discussed. Members agreed to add an extra Committee meeting in February and to invite the Head of Environmental Services to the March meeting.

RESOLVED:-

That Members note the contents of the Work Programme.

The Chairman reported that there was no other business being of sufficient urgency to warrant consideration at the meeting.

There were no members of the public in attendance.