Audit & Governance Committee - Thursday 27 November 2025, 7:00pm - Epping Forest District Council webcasts

Audit & Governance Committee
Thursday, 27th November 2025 at 7:00pm 

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  1. Cllr Jon Whitehouse
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  1. Laura Kirman
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  1. Sarah Marsh
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  8. Cllr Martin Morris
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  1. Sue Linsley
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  1. Owen Sparks
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  1. Webcast Finished

1 Webcasting Introduction

Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:00:07
I will read the webcasting introduction and then we will move on to introductions.
This meeting will be webcast, be filled live and recorded and uploaded to the internet
and so capable of repeated viewing.
So by participating, you're consenting to being filmed and the possible use of those images and recordings.
If anyone doesn't wish to have their image captured on Teams, they should ensure their video setting is turned off.
We don't have any public speakers and if members can turn their microphones on before speaking and off afterwards, that would be great.
My name is John Whitehouse, I'm the chair of the meeting.
I'm very pleased to welcome Heather Neale to her first meeting as our independent member.
It's very important we've got independent members of the Audit Committee and it's great to be up to full strength again.
I hope you find it interesting and look forward to your contributions.
Also welcome Hannah to I think your first audit committee meeting, one of our internal audit team,
and Councillor Morris who's not a member of the committee but is a Councillor who takes an interest in these things.
So welcome to you as well and I think you've met everyone else.
Okay, are there any apologies for absence please?

2 Apologies for Absence

Laura Kirman - 0:01:38
I've received two apologies for absence. I've received apologies from Councillor Owen and from Councillor Sunger.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:01:43
Okay, and are there any declarations of interest?

3 Declarations of Interest

Nope.

4 Minutes

In which case we can move on to the minutes of the next meeting.
Are those of us who are there happy that they are a correct record?
Yep.
Okay, so we'll agree those are correct.

5 Matters Arising

There's a couple of matters arising just at the end of the minutes.
We'll pick up I think the issue about community cohesion in the risk item later on in the agenda.
And there's an item asking for an update on the climate risks.
Does anyone want to say anything about that?
We will pick that up if needed in the work plan or in feedback when we get to the risk item.
Which takes on to the work programme on page 7.

6 Audit & Governance Committee - Work Programme

Sarah Marsh - 0:02:46
So this is our usual work programme that we have for the Audit and Governance Committee.
We were going to have the Anti -Fraud and Corruption Strategy and the Whittle -Blowing Policy coming to this meeting,
but they will be coming to the February meeting.
And if there's any additional reports or items that you want to add to the work plan, just need to ask.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:03:06
Okay, and I think we're also expecting the external auditors to come in at the beginning
next year. Do you want to update us on that, Mr Sparks?
Owen Sparks - 0:03:14
So I've spoken to the external auditors and they've got an update, so if you're happy
I'll just go through that. So this is on the audit and some of the other work that are
undertaken at the moment. So as reported at the last committee, the field work for the
it starts in October. That is continuing. There was two week pause really due to capacity
issues within the team and trying to get the audit work turned around, which is really
a symptom of us being a district council and that backlog and a lot more samples and that
being required. So they're now back doing their field work and their intention is to
complete that before Christmas and then do their review process in January. So still
with a hope for a month in hand before the statutory backstop date in February.
The focus remains on a number of areas which they're working through at the moment.
They're going to share their VFM commentary and their draught orders annual report with
myself and obviously I thought that yourself, Chair of the Committee, that's within that
statutory date for that which is the end of this month.
So imminently, obviously what will happen when that is completed and they come back
in the new year, the final version of that will be brought to the whole committee to
review with their recommendations and their findings.
At this stage they have identified some significant risks relating to QALYST, financial stability,
governance and effectiveness, but having done their work there are no significant weaknesses
that have been found to date in relation to that, although they did flag that risk up,
the work hasn't taken me up.
So I'm going to cough again, excuse me, sorry.
That's difficult, isn't it?
The other thing that I did allude to last time is there's been some change in some of the audit regulations
and they have confirmed they're not able to rely on the audit work of the auditors of Qolis and TVS.
That's because the audit and the accounts have been done by the same external firm,
to the regs of change, so they're going to repeat some of that work on external companies
that will then feed into our group accounts. So again, they've just confirmed what they
mentioned last time around. So capacity issues do continue and what will happen is an ongoing
basis we're talking to the auditors about what level of work we'll complete this year,
what might be deferred to next year and that ties in with the claimed opinion that we'd
like to get for this year, next year before we get that full audit opinion whilst they
build up their picture or historic balances brought forward whilst the audits haven't
been happening in previous years. And that's their update, Chair.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:05:56
Thanks very much for that. So just briefly, we're talking about capacity issues, we're
talking about capacity issues within the Council, not capacity issues within the auditors team.
Owen Sparks - 0:06:05
I think we've been, in a way, pleasantly surprised. There's been so many auditors, which has been
Part of the issue really, yes.
Thanks.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:06:15
So are we expecting to need to slot in another meeting to handle VIX and auditors or will they come to February's meeting?
Owen Sparks - 0:06:23
We're hoping that as soon as the accounts are ready that we'd arrange for yourself an additional meeting.
But hopefully by Christmas we'll know where that sits and we can put a date in the diary.
Otherwise, we've got the date in the day of February, which we'll remember we put in because
it's just before that backstop date to make sure we're complying with the regulations.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:06:44
So watch your inboxes for a potential extra meeting.
Okay, so are there any other questions on what we've just heard or comments on the work
plan or suggestions for changes or additions to the work plan?
No?
Happy with that?
Okay, thanks very much.
So, we can move on to the Treasury Management Report next, isn't it?

7 Treasury Management Quarter 2 Report

Owen Sparks - 0:07:09
So this report is the quarterly update on the Treasury Management position.
It covers the first quarter of the year, so the first six months, and we bring these forward
to comply with the Treasury Management Code and the approved Treasury Management Strategy
that is approved every year in February. So the key highlights is in the borrowing position
the Council has borrowed £15 .9 million this quarter, which brings the total debt from
£253 million to £269 million. All that borrowing has been undertaken through the PWLB. On the
investment position, our Treasury investments, we haven't actually got investments for yield,
We've also just got our cash flow investments whilst we hold cash for cash flow reasons.
That stands at 16 .1 million, that is up from 13 .5 million pounds at the beginning of the
year.
That is all invested in money market funds and short -term UK government deposits.
We have fully complied with the potential code and the CIPFA code and treasury management
strategy and their details of individual potential indicators are set out within the report.
The report also sets out the economic context which we've been operating in during the second
quarter. So a lot of this is probably historic now with the budget and emerging information,
but it really talks about things like inflation remains stubbornly high, bank rates although
have come down slightly they're still, they haven't come down as fast as anticipated.
guilt yields are still quite high and guilt
yields remember committees what our lending rate is fixed to.
It doesn't relate to base rate, it relates to guilt rates.
That's why that's important for us to understand and follow.
I think that's probably pretty much the report perhaps to take.
Any questions?
Okay, always a lot in the Treasury Management Report.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:09:10
Some parts of it sort of stay very similar from quarters to
and other bits, the figures change.
But I'll open it to members.
Are there any questions members want to ask, Vice Chair?
Sissel Heiberg - 0:09:25
Just one question about the, on page 17,
there's a reference to the numbers.
It says, the numbers reflect the accrued position currently in the Council's books,
which does not take into account the collectability of income.
Any kind of verbal update on indications thereof, any write -offs that might be necessary or
how likely the collectability is?
Owen Sparks - 0:09:58
So the way the Council accounts for its income is that as invoices are raised, we credit
that invoice to the council on the assumption that income is coming in.
and what we then do is review our bad debt provision that will take some of that out at the year end.
We haven't got any particular concerns that those significant levels of income will not come through.
There's always some bad debts that come from time to time because of liquidations and the like,
but we haven't got any significant concerns around the collectability of the debt in the commercial asset portfolio.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:10:33
I think I'm right in saying one of the KPIs that the scrutiny committee looks at once every so often
is the percentage of both housing rents and council tax collected and commercial rents
collected and hopefully they'd be flagging up any sort of particular concerns in that
area.
Owen Sparks - 0:10:54
It also flags up the voids in the portfolio as well, again just to give that comfort from
that perspective.
Okay, thank you.
Councillor Morris.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:11:01
Thank you.
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:11:05
On the PWLB, the rates on that are linked to gilt yields are they?
How does that work?
Is it variable or are they reset every so many months or how does that work?
Owen Sparks - 0:11:28
It's basically they're reset real time.
So it's gilt rates plus 80 basis points.
So it is, depends from day to day what that rate would be in line with what the market
does.
Unfortunately it's, well it can be good and bad obviously.
Budget's been slightly good for you then, I suppose.
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:11:47
It's come down a bit.
The other question was about borrowing.
So I noticed on table 1 you've got some figures there for borrowing, I think that's from March
March figures, isn't it, in table one, I think.
And it's forecast to go from 265 to 318, is that right, in table one, which is about 20%,
if my maths are right.
So I was just looking for a bit of a background about that increase, which seems reasonably
significant over the period of a year.
What's driving that forecast?
Owen Sparks - 0:12:29
So that links to the capital strategy that we approve in our capital programme.
Obviously that includes the HRA borrowing and the general fund borrowing.
So with that, what we do, we look at the capital programme when we think we're going to need to buy first capital projects,
and that's what drives the level of borrowing forecast.
And the key capital projects behind that?
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:12:53
Or is that only if you've got the detail?
Owen Sparks - 0:12:57
I haven't got it to hand but it will be around, we've got ongoing investment in the Qolis
Development Programme and the HRA Capital Programme is also a big element of that.
Also we're finishing off, I won't point in the right direction, Epping Leisure Centre
and obviously the Northfield Airfield.
So we've got quite a few, quite chunky projects and obviously the depot as well for the new
TBS depots.
We have got a lot of projects that are going on this year as well that support that.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:13:31
As well as the capital programme, we can see that one of the things that's driven the increase in borrowing this quarter
is the Springwood Grove Qualis development, which for those who don't know is literally right next door to where we're at now.
I don't want to go into the why's and where for's, why it's taking so long.
But what are the processes the council goes through to ensure that the right thing to do is to provide more development funding rather than say,
well, crudely, this isn't going to end up in a good place and therefore it's not worth putting more money after the project?
Owen Sparks - 0:14:13
So with all development projects, so for quality of the example we do the business plan that
is approved every year and that improves level of borrowing for individual projects and there's
door -down facilities to actually get those delivered. So what that ensures is we're borrowing
for projects that are, if you think, approved in the business plan but nothing that isn't
approved in the business plan and hasn't been approved through that cabinet and council
process and we approve that business plan policy every year.
That's the same if TVS must do the best as well, do the same thing.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:14:46
And am I right in thinking that the next business plan is due fairly soon?
Owen Sparks - 0:14:51
The last business plan was January, so it will be on an annual basis, it will be early
in the new year.
Okay, thanks for that.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:15:00
Do we know or have an estimate of when the balance will change?
Because we're only funding existing projects now, as I understand, we're not funding new
projects.
Do we have any idea when the balance will change and when there will be more money coming
in than going out?
Owen Sparks - 0:15:20
So we do a cash flow projection.
So Springbrook Grove should be coming to completion in the middle of next year.
That's the main one.
Then we've got Hemnall Street and St John's.
There's a number of projects that should come to a conclusion in the first half of next year.
Okay, thanks.
If I could just follow up with one more.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:15:43
Some of these projects I think are development projects and some are land sales.
Obviously, I think we've got a charge on the land when we gave the loan, so the loan was
backed by an asset, as it were.
If Qolis disposes of an asset that we've got a charge on, again, what's the process for
the business plan again that that's controlled?
Qolis can't dispose of anything.
Owen Sparks - 0:16:11
It's just through the business plan, it's been approved by the shareholder, by the council.
No, that's helpful.
Thanks very much.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:16:17
Okay, anything else on the Treasury management plan before
you, oh, Councilman.
Sorry, I was just going to ask another question on top of
yours there.
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:16:26
I mean, we are funding the development of these housing
projects for QALYST.
So if it had to be disposed of the entire asset, presumably we
have a claim on that asset when they dispose of it.
Again, so we can settle at least a portion of the loan that we've made on it.
Owen Sparks - 0:16:48
Well hopefully all of it, but nicely some proportion of it.
So as part of the business plan, as part of the lending, there's a plan for when repayments
of loans need to come back to the Council.
So there's a schedule attached to the loans.
So it doesn't mean that if Qolis sold something immediately it'll come back.
It fits in with what the pre -agreed terms are.
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:17:14
Okay, so even if they dispose of an asset, the recovery to AFDC would be barred the schedule
that's been agreed for that.
Yeah, okay, thanks.
Okay, thanks for that.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:17:23
And I'd like to have one more question, which is, I thought it was table one, but it wasn't.
But there's a table in here which shows the amount of internal borrowing that we now have,
mainly from the result of the land sale in North Weald.
How is the sort of internal interest rate set on the internal borrowing?
We've heard about how the interest rate is set for external borrowing, but how do we
set it for the internal borrowing?
Owen Sparks - 0:17:48
There's not an interest rate as such that is set for internal borrowing.
It all comes in a nice, fast way.
It comes out in the wash with our capital financing.
So what we do, our capital financing costs consist of our borrowing costs, minimum of
infusion offset by our investment costs.
So what Internal Buying basically does, it means we don't have the interest coming in
because the cash isn't in the bank, but we're not borrowing, so the benefit is that differential
between the borrowing and lending.
But it's accounted for as part of the Treasury strategy, looking at investments and borrowing.
We obviously do it to minimise borrowing costs.
Yeah, yeah, actually now you say that, remember, you said something similar at the last meeting,
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:18:29
and we asked you a similar question at the last meeting, so thanks for that.
Okay, well, if there's nothing else on the Treasury management strategy, we'll move on
to the internal audit report, please.

8 Internal Audit Progress Report

Thank you, Chair.
Sue Linsley - 0:18:46
So this is the usual update report from internal audits and the corporate fraud team.
Two final reports have been issued since the last update.
There was major incident management systems given substantial assurance.
The MIMS system was found to be robust and effectively mitigates the risks.
There were no significant deficiencies found and there were just some small opportunities
is for improvement, but these don't undermine the overall effectiveness of the systems.
The second audit was the housing voids, which was also awarded substantial assurance. It
was found that the voids are being effectively managed and the risks relating to the voids
well controlled. And I think it's worth pointing out that the recommendations arising from
This has already been implemented.
So moving on to the recommendation tracker, the detail is in Appendix 2.
So we have two medium priority recommendations which are overdue and we've got one high priority
which is not past its due date yet.
So this recommendation came out of the review of housing contractor which is described in
paragraph 6.
Internal audit did a review around processes, found that a full tender exercise hadn't been
undertaken.
So this is around ensuring that we do have contracts in place for all our suppliers where
where we need to have one.
The other piece of work that we've been doing is around the
Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act,
where a new failure to prevent broad offences
are being introduced.
And we've developed an action plan which will be monitored by
a corporate governance group to ensure that the changes required
by the Act are implemented.
I'm going to pass to Sarah now.
Sarah Marsh - 0:21:13
Continuing through the report then, the next bit is about the corporate fraud team, which
I oversee.
So the corporate fraud team look at every single right to buy and vet it to make sure
that it's legitimate and does the anti -money laundering cheques.
So we want to make sure people who are purchasing their own home are using legitimate sources
of funding and back last year the government removed the discount and there was a great
big flux of right to buy applications came in. The corporate fraud team are saying they
can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel now because they've had a real lot
to deal with but it just shows you under item 8 and item 9 that it was really important
that we do those cheques on every single right to buy because there are some
anomalies that are being turned up. Also they've been working with the housing
team and we've managed to recover a
property which means it's now back in circulation and can be used for our
residents. The last part of the report talks about the annual governance
statement action plan and one of the areas that we needed to keep an eye on
was local government reorganisation. So each council within Essex has now
submitted their plan and we're just waiting for the government to announce
who what the new unitaries look right so there's been a lot of work in the
background and we continue to get ready for LGR as it's known as. Second one is
around the financial regulations.
So the section 151 officer Owen has been working
with our monitoring officer and looking
at the financial regulations as well as the procurement rules
and making sure that they are up to date
and they've been fed through the systems of approval.
Financial management code review is to make sure
that we're in line with good practise,
high level review looked at this and we determined that overall we were complying, but we just
actually need to go through and do that checklist and go through and cross all the T's and dots
or the I's. If anything significant comes out of that, then we will obviously put an
action plan in place for that.
Transparency code. Under the Code 2015 Code, there's certain information that we have to
publish on our website and we've been a bit amiss on that. So we've got a programme in place
to make sure that that is all up to date by December.
So some of the common themes that we just need to make sure that we're keeping an eye
on is around performance indicators and making sure that we've got the right indicators in
So that's been happening more at a service level.
Making better use of artificial intelligence.
So the council has now published its own AI policy on that
and that's been rolled out across the council
and there's various training and briefing
being provided to staff members.
And then there was some pockets
of where we've got some very lean teams
and we just need to make sure that we have good emergency cover and succession planning.
And that's sort of wrapped up within LGR where we're just looking at our workforce at the
moment and working out where all our people are.
I have to take any questions.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:25:01
Thanks very much.
I always feel the internal audit update could easily be three separate reports.
There's always so much there.
But did anyone want to ask any questions about what we just heard?
Vice -Chair.
Sissel Heiberg - 0:25:19
Thank you to the internal audit team.
As the Chair just highlighted, it's a chunky report with lots of good content.
A couple of questions.
I guess one is more of a comment on the AGS.
I note that a couple of the items have been carried forward from prior periods.
How do we make sure that we've got progress, that there's forward momentum on these items?
Because I know that there's no deadlines or dates attached to any of these.
Sarah Marsh - 0:25:56
So each time we do the AGS update, we go along to the relevant manager or director and try
and pin them down to what they've done,
what more they need to do.
That then goes through to the corporate governance group.
So we've got the three strategy officers on there,
the head of paid services, section 151,
and the monitoring officer.
And they will pick up if there's not enough action
being taken on that before it comes to audit committee.
Sissel Heiberg - 0:26:30
Would it be possible to ask for deadlines
so that we avoid the carry -forward as much as possible.
Sarah Marsh - 0:26:38
We'll make sure that's added for next time's update.
Anyone else?
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:26:43
Councillor Moyes.
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:26:47
Yeah, I just wanted to mention there was a new policy
on the use of artificial intelligence.
I just wanted to ask how that links to the work
that you're doing on cyber,
is going on on cyber security.
AI is also a great benefit, it's also an area of risk.
I just wondered how those two have been linked together.
Sarah Marsh - 0:27:09
So the biggest risk with AI at the moment is non -compliance with the general data protection
regulations, so the message is very clear is that don't put any personal or sensitive
data within co -pilots, co -pilot that we've got at this council, and that's a very strong
that message is being... So there is no explicit link at the moment with
cybersecurity but I know on the cybersecurity side that we've... they do
phishing attacks exercises on us where they send us an email and they try and
get us to click on a link which is what AI would do as well. It was a really good
one that they did. They were promising click on this link and you get free cup
of Costa Coffee and unfortunately there were some people that linked, did go on it, which
made them realise that they really needed to push the message home. We're very wary
of it now, hopefully in most staff hours as well. So there's no explicit link at the moment
but it's that awareness of it's a good thing but there are the dangers with it as well.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:28:23
I was going to ask about the internal audit plan that's laid out on page 37. Obviously
last year we had to roll over some of the internal audits into this year for reasons
which you explained at the time.
And there's still quite a lot left to try and get done
in the remaining part of this year.
Just sort of explain how you're going to approach that
and whether we're going to achieve all that.
Yeah, so ideally I want to achieve everything
Sarah Marsh - 0:29:03
that's on there.
And I've set out, I've got a matrix of what audits,
what auditors are going to do, when they're going to do it, when we expect to get it done.
There may be some that we might want to defer for operational reasons or for good reasons that
things have moved on and we're going to bring that to the February committee meeting. I don't want to
say what they are at the moment but I have actually got all those audits planned in for
the rest of the year. But unfortunately we get investigations or additional bits of work
like the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act that just blows us off course. So what
we have to remember is that as head of internal audit I need to give my opinion, overall opinion
for the year on governance, risk management and internal controls. The majority of my
assurances are from the work that internal audit does but it's all this other stuff that
we do in the background, so we're part of the risk management when we go to SLT, we
talk about risk with people so we understand how risk works and things like that. So I
am hopeful to deliver it, but I'll give you a better update in February. We're just taking
stock, just coming up to Christmas.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:30:20
Okay, that's very helpful. Thanks. Thanks very much. And then perhaps if I could ask
about on page 38, we've got the recommendations. And we said at the last meeting how good it
to see the number of overdue recommendations reduce and in fact have no overdue high priority
recommendations. There's no harm in saying that again. But yes, once you've ticked off
one thing, you then look at the next thing, don't you? And that first recommendation in
particular has been hanging around since the end of, well, since 2022. And I just wondered,
you look at the column and see the number of scratched out implementation dates, and
I wondered how confident we were about achieving the end of year date down here.
Owen Sparks - 0:31:12
We are reasonably comfortable. So we have a draught service descriptor in place for finance,
So obviously that just needs to be reviewed and then that can then be approved.
So I know the work is there.
I'm not going to hand on heart because it's only a month away, but I think we've
recently come for that work that will be delivered then or shortly after.
Okay.
No, that's reassuring.
Thanks very much.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:31:41
And the other item I was going to mention is there's a couple
of mentions of procurement in the report in terms of the work
that's been done on the codes and policies and looking into
the use of the procurement rules.
And it did occur to me, well, not just me,
members as well, that it might be useful to have a sort of
deeper look at some procurement issues, just to help the
committee understand a bit more about how procurement works in
the council and how it's approached.
And perhaps we could invite, you know, the relevant member staff
to come along and, you know, share a bit about what they do
and how they work.
I'm just happy to agree that request.
Okay.
Are you okay with that?
Yeah, okay.
We'll make that happen for you.
Thanks.
Sarah Marsh - 0:32:44
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:32:46
If there's nothing else on the internal audit report?
Yeah, right.
Oh, sorry.
Vice Chair.
Sissel Heiberg - 0:32:56
Yeah, just following on from Chair's comment on Appendix 2 of the overdue and high priority,
Just looking forward, obviously we talked about the over -dos and the timelines and how things are kind of continuing on from 2022 etc.
Looking at the new high recommendation or the finding that was raised, the timeline for that is very short.
And I do want to point out I think it's really admirable and very positive that the actions are broader than the finding that's been raised.
I think that's very, very positive.
But when you're trying to implement something that's wider
than just the finding that's been raised,
and I note that the action is reviewing housing contracts,
that of course then makes it a bigger piece of work.
So how likely do we think it is that that action will be
completed by the end of the year?
Sue Linsley - 0:33:50
So the Director of Housing, who had not long been at the council
when this review was carried out was actually already aware of the issue that all contracts
went in place and had essentially started looking at that.
So we're quite confident because they actually have done some of them already.
It was a case of identifying those which didn't have a contract in place, assigning the responsibility
for making sure they exist, so I'm pretty confident.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:34:34
Okay, well in that case, let's move on to the final item on page 40, which is all about

9 Risk Management

risk management.
Owen Sparks - 0:34:45
Thank you, Chas. This is the quarterly update on the corporate risk register and the update.
So the risk register was reviewed by the senior leadership team and by the corporate governance
group and there are a number of key changes.
So the homelessness demand risk has been increased from 12 to 16 and that's just reflecting the
increase and growing demand of people presenting as homelessness in the borough.
So that's something we will be keeping an eye on very carefully and working with some
mitigations to try and support that.
The Council's House Build Programme, that has been removed and placed on the service
of this register.
That was initially specifically around right to buy receipts and their use.
These have now been spent and the actual guidelines and legislation surrounding rights to buy
receipts has changed as well, given us more time to actually spend them.
So that has been closed, a significant risk from a corporate perspective.
The workforce and future profiling risk has been reduced from a 12 to an 8 and that reflects
the ongoing work with the workforce strategy, linking to the LGR work we're doing, there's
a training process in place, so again there's a framework in place across the council to
address those risks.
So it still exists but it's been reduced.
Local government reorganisation, we've reduced that risk from a 20 to a 12.
That reflects the fact that the business cases have now been sent in to MHCLG who are reviewing
them.
We have a plan in place internally to manage our approach to LGR and there was a plan across
Essex working with other Essex boroughs, leaders, chief executives about how we can manage the
process.
Obviously we need to keep careful on that because things will change as more information
comes available, but we have a strategy and a plan in place to address that work going
forward so we're more comfortable in work previously.
Conversely, and again we discussed this at this committee last quarter, the community
cohesion risk, we've increased that from 16 to 20 just really to highlight the ongoing
sort of national implications, specifically for us, the Bell Hotel and the situation around
that which is continuing. We did talk about the community cohesion work that's going
on across Essex that is continuing, really looking at the initial problems and then working
on a longer term strategy. That isn't in place yet but that is in hand and working
with all key partners really across Essex. The other risks on the report remain unchanged.
I just want to point out that we did have a discussion last time around about cyber
security.
I just point members that following that discussion, a note went as part of the October, October,
the last committee cabinet on cyber security setting out the approach the council was taking
to that and that links into some of the conversation we were having earlier with AI and outlining
And whilst, although we are doing everything we can to manage it, the risk is continuing
to evolve and to change.
And again, you can see that from national media.
So it is unlikely to reduce significantly from that score.
So we can send out that link in the minutes, perhaps, so some members can review that at
their leisure.
Happy to take any questions.
Yeah, no, that would be very helpful if we have that in the minutes.
Thanks very much.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:38:31
Yeah, last time when we talked about the risk register, the committee expressed some sort
surprised about how static a lot of the risks were. So whether coincidental or not, I think
it's good to see some risks falling off the register, not falling off, being taken off
the register and others being adjusted. Members, any questions?
Vice -Chair.
Sissel Heiberg - 0:38:57
You mentioned community cohesion there and looking at the detail on page 47 with relative
references to community cohesion cell being set up. It says engagement is under development
and you alluded to it but could you expand a little bit more on what that looks like
Owen Sparks - 0:39:23
in practise on the ground? So there are regular meetings of all major
stakeholders, so the police, health, councils, really looking at emerging issues and then
look at how we can involve the wider community, stakeholders to try and address some of the
underlying causes of the sort of the falling community cohesion and then review to have
another wider strategy longer term, how we can address that going forward.
Obviously that is definitely a longer term strategy that needs lots of different levers
to try and to maximise the benefit.
That's what's trying to pull in all those key active players
to try and influence that and feed into that.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:40:11
Anyone else?
Councilman.
I just wanted to make one point on the coming back
to cyber security.
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:40:17
And I mean, in the news over the last couple of days,
we had the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
and Westminster City Council being the targets
for cyber attack.
And there have been quotes from a number of experts on the website saying local authorities remain some of the easiest public sector targets for reasons that we well understand.
So I just wanted to emphasise my personal concerns about that risk and the fact that it appears to be remaining stably at 16.
Owen Sparks - 0:40:56
I think again it will always be high if you know you look at if Marks and
Spencers can be hacked and Land Rover can be hacked it's something that again
as a council we're only personalised we need to be very aware of we are obviously doing
training we do training on Tuesday with staff around it so that's something
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:41:16
where we're doing all we can to try and mitigate it. And I think as long as it is
read like that, you know, there will be questions asked at
committees like this and other forums as well, and it will be
at the front of people's minds, and that's one of the things,
isn't it, sort of eternal vigilance.
Okay, I didn't have anything else on the risk register.
We're asked to refer it to cabinet for approval.
Are people happy to refer it as it stands?
Okay.
Right.
Well, that brings us, I think, to the end of the meeting.
Let me just double cheque.

10 Any Other Business

Yeah, that brings us to the end of the meeting.
So thanks very much for your questions and participation.
And yes, look out for whether we've got a special meeting.
Otherwise, we'll see you in February.
Thanks very much.
Sissel Heiberg
Co-optee - Audit & Governance Committee
View profile Sissel Heiberg
Laura Kirman
Democratic Services Officer
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Laura Kirman
Sue Linsley
Senior Auditor
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Sue Linsley
Sarah Marsh
Chief Internal Auditor
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Sarah Marsh
Cllr Martin Morris
District councillor for Waltham Abbey North ward
Labour Party
View profile Cllr Martin Morris
Owen Sparks
Interim Strategic Director / S151 Officer
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Owen Sparks
Cllr Jon Whitehouse
District councillor for Epping East ward
Liberal Democrats
View profile Cllr Jon Whitehouse