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Agenda item

Internal Audit Annual Opinion 2025/26

Purpose:

To present a summary of the work undertaken by Internal Audit during 2025/26 and to give an overall opinion on levels of assurance resulting from this work.

Due to the information contained in The Internal Audit Annual Opinion, it is deemed unnecessary to submit a separate quarterly monitoring report. Instead, we have produced a condensed version of the usual report which contains a summary of the work concluded since the last meeting of this Committee.

 

Recommendation:     

That the Audit and Governance Committee resolves to:

  1. Consider the report and comment as necessary

 

Minutes:

Jaina Mistry, Senior Auditor (SWAP Internal Audit Services), presented the item, the purpose of which was to present a summary of the work undertaken by Internal Audit during 2025/26 and to give an overall annual opinion on levels of assurance resulting from this work.

 

In her presentation the Officer made the following points:

 

  • SWAP had issued an annual opinion of “reasonable assurance” from the audits on the Council undertaken in 25/26.
  • Page 30 of the pack gave a summary of the audits completed with a more detailed version of this shown on page 42.
  • Page 46 of the report showed the audits that had been completed since the last report to the Committee in March 2026.
  • Page 52 of the report showed the open agreed actions of which there were nine. The S106 2023/24 open action, which had a target date of February 2026, had been followed up and was with the legal service.

 

In the discussion the Committee made the following points:

 

  • Members focused on the S106 2023/24 open action and requested more detail on the improvements that were being made. The Officer advised that further information on this would be provided to the Committee following the meeting.
  • Members asked for more clarification on what a suspense account was. Officers advised that these accounts can be credits or debits. Where bank transactions cannot be allocated to a specific location by the Bank Reconciliation Team, due to a lack of a reference number for example, monies may sit in such accounts while attempts were being made to clear them. Increased management and automation had meant that the number of transactions in suspense accounts had decreased.  
  • The Committee questioned how many recommendations from Internal Audit had not been accepted by the Council. The Director of Finance confirmed that all actions had been taken on board however some had not been implemented at that point. All priority one actions had been implemented.
  • Members noted that the Council had been given a “reasonable” assurance, however the report noted seven audits which had been given “substantial” assurance and questioned the methodology around this. Officers noted that the opinion was not solely based on audits completed but also advisory work and conversations with the senior leadership team and reiterated that “reasonable” was a good opinion.
  • Members noted the significant weakness that had been identified in data retention. Officers advised that this weakness had been identified around procedures not being followed in the transfer from Publica services back to the Council. In some cases documentation had been retained where it was not correct to do so. Furthermore, Officers noted that a new Data Retention Policy had been introduced and rolled out to teams through the management team and this would address the historic weakness in this area.
  • Members asked for more information on the Grant Certification audit carbon data 2023/24 that was shown as in progress. Officers would return more information to the Committee.

 

Councillor Nigel Ridpath, Chair of the Audit and Governance Committee, revisited the Committees discussion on the outstanding agreed action on S106 and voiced the Committees wish to see more urgent progress on this matter. The Chief Executive agreed to look into the matter and report back. 

 

Councillor Carl Rylett proposed that the Committee note the report.

 

Councillor Toby Morris seconded the proposal, this was put to the vote and agreed by the Committee.

 

The Audit and Governance Committee resolved to:

1.    Note the report.

Supporting documents:

 

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