Agenda for General Purposes Committee on Thursday, 1st December, 2022, 7.00 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Conference Room, Civic Centre, Silver Street, Enfield, EN1 3XA. View directions

Contact: Marie Lowe, Governance and Scrutiny Officer, 020 8132 1558 Email: Democracy@enfield.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

1.

WELCOME & APOLOGIES

Minutes:

Apologies for absence had been received from Cllr Elisa Morreale, who was substituted by Cllr Hannah Dyson.

 

Apologies for absence had also been received from Cllr Esin Gunes, Peter Nwosu, Independent Member and Lisa Blake, BDO. 

 

David Eagles and Sebastian Evans from BDO were in attendance.

2.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members of the committee are invited to identify any disclosable pecuniary, other pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests relevent to the items on the agenda.

Minutes:

During the discussion which ensued under item 4 – Audit and Risk Management Service Progress Update, Cllr Nawshad Ali advised that he was a Member of the Council’s Local Pension Board and Cllr Sabri Ozaydin advised he was a Member of the Council’s Pension Policy and Investment Committee.

3.

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING pdf icon PDF 96 KB

To agree the minutes of the General Purposes Committee meeting held on 20 October 2022.

Minutes:

NOTED that the minutes of the General Purposes Committee meeting held on 20 October 2022 be AGREED.

4.

AUDIT AND RISK MANAGEMENT SERVICE PROGRESS UPDATE pdf icon PDF 792 KB

The Audit and Risk Management Service Progress update report summarises the results of the work undertaken during the period 1 April 2021 to 31 October 2022 and the continued work to target limited audit resources at the highest priority Corporate and Schools’ services.

Minutes:

The Audit and Risk Management Service Progress Update report summarised the results of the work undertaken during the period 1 April 2021 to 31 October 2022 and the continued work to target limited audit resources at the highest priority Corporate and Schools’ services.

 

The Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management provided a verbal update on the actions from the previous meeting in relation to the Audit and Risk Management Service and the Corporate Risk Register.

 

Members raised the following queries.

 

Recycling Waste Services Contract, which was due to expire in September 2023, the dates for the lead-in time for the renewal of the contract; clarification who had responsibility that the formal meetings were minuted and whether the performance of the contractor had reached the agreed performance criteria when there were no contract management agreements in place.         ACTION

 

CR05 Duty of Care - Passenger Services Operations - Adults

How the samples of the journeys travelled were used to assess the accuracy of the routes taken or not taken against the claims made and invoiced in relation to transport for Adult Social Care.                                         ACTION

 

With the permission of the Chair, the Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management announced that the Internal Audit and Risk Management Team had won the Public Finance Award, for which the Committee commended the members of staff involved.

 

AGREED that the feedback from the Committee and contents of the report together with the work of the Audit and Risk Management Service be NOTED.

5.

UPDATE ON FINANCIAL RESILIENCE/MANAGING THE SAVINGS pdf icon PDF 441 KB

The report provides an overview on the Council’s financial resilience and managing the savings.

Minutes:

The report provided an overview on the Council’s financial resilience and managing the savings.

In response to questions from Members, the Executive Director, Resources advised that a specific review on the significant financial pressures faced by the Council was underway.  These included the cost of Special Educational Needs (SEN), an increasing need for education, health, and care plans (EHCPs), the need for additional places within the care system.  A report would be taken to the appropriate formal body of the Council.

 

The Executive Director, Resources undertook to provide inflationary information dating back to 1997, together with information regarding SEN for the last three to four years to provide a data comparison regarding the current position and would resend a list of the Council’s loans for the last forty years.                                                                                                                ACTION

 

AGREED that:

 

1.    The journey of financial resilience to the present time be NOTED;

 

2.    The challenge presented by the current high inflationary environment which was exacerbating the Council’s (and the sector’s) budget challenge for at least 2022/23 and 2023/24, across revenue and capital be NOTED;

 

3.    The approach the Council was taking in closing the 2023/24 budget gap be NOTED;

 

4.    The negative direction of reserve balances, after a period of upward trajectory be NOTED; and

 

5.    The fragile sector wide funding position and changing nature of the challenge, after 2023/24 was balanced be NOTED. 

 

6.

UPDATE ON THE AUDIT OF THE 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS AND PENSION FUND pdf icon PDF 177 KB

Minutes:

Following the publication of the draft 2021/22 Statement of Accounts (including Pension Fund), the report provided an update on the audit status of each year of open, unaudited accounts for the three financial years 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22.

At the request of the Committee, the representatives from the External Auditor undertook to provide an update on the sector-wide infrastructure assets issue, which remained open whilst CIPFA continued to work on a solution, in January 2023.

AGREED that:

1.  The information provided within the report of Officers on the progress of audit of LBE’s open sets of accounts since the October meeting of the General Purposes Committee be NOTED;

 

2.  The current accumulated backlog of three years of open, unaudited statement of accounts be NOTED; and

 

3.  At the submission point of the report, the External Auditor, BDO who had intended to have finalised the audit of the 2019/20 statement of accounts in time for the meeting, barring the sector-wide infrastructure assets had not done so be NOTED.

 

7.

DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS

To note the next meeting of the General Purposes Committee is scheduled to take place at 7pm on Thursday, 19 January 2023.

Minutes:

The next meeting of the General Purposes Committee, scheduled to take place on Thursday, 19 January 2023 would start at the slightly later time of 7.15pm. 

8.

EXCLUSION OF THE PRESS AND PUBLIC

To consider passing a resolution under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972 excluding the press and public from the meeting for the items of business listed on part 2 of the agenda on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in those paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act (as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006). (Members are asked to refer to the part 2 agenda).

Minutes:

AGREED to pass a resolution under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972 excluding the press and public from the meeting for the items of business listed on part 2 of the agenda on the grounds that they involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in those paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act (as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006).

 

9.

MERIDIAN WATER RISK REGISTER UPDATE

The report provides an update on the Meridian Water Risk Register.

Minutes:

The confidential report provided an update on the Meridian Water Risk Register.

 

AGREED that the report be noted.