Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 25^th November 2024.

The minutes of the meeting held on 25^th November 2024 were agreed and signed as a true record.

With regards to minute 37/24, headed “Annual Compliance Report 2023 – Regulatory and Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000”, the Committee noted that a briefing note relating to the use of RIPA powers in respect of fly-tipping had been circulated earlier that day.

Report of the Director of Finance and Resources

The Audit and Procurement Committee considered a report of the Director of Finance and Resources, which set out the external auditor, Grant Thornton’s, report on the Council’s arrangements for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources for the financial year 2023/24.

In addition to the external audit of the statutory statement of accounts, the Council’s external auditor are required under the National Audit Office (NAO) Code of Practice to carry out an annual audit which tests arrangements that the Council has in place to ensure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources.

The Appendix to the report set out the Auditor’s report for 2023/24, including recommendations where they consider improvements may be made, plus a management response for each.  It also presented progress on previously made recommendations.

The equivalent report for 2022/23 was considered and noted by this committee at its meeting on 18 March 2024 (Minute 52/23 refers).

The Committee noted that the external auditors are required to prepare their report based on the following specified criteria:

·  Financial sustainability: how the Council plans and manages its resources to ensure it can continue to deliver its services.

·  Governance: how the Council ensures that it makes informed decisions and properly manages its risks.

·  Improving economy, efficiency and effectiveness: how the Council uses information about its costs and performance to improve the way it manages and delivers its  services.

A number of the improvement recommendations reflected in the 2022/23 report had now been resolved, with the remainder identified as ‘in progress’ within the 2023/24 report.  It is expected that these will also be addressed prior to the next annual audit for 2024/25.

Grant Thornton had identified as part of the 2023/24 audit report, 5 new improvement recommendations which had been accepted, and a management response had been included.

RESOLVED that, the Audit and Procurement Committee note the auditors Interim Annual Audit report for 2023/24, appended to the report submitted, including the key and improvement recommendations contained within.

Report of the Director of Finance and Resources

The Audit and Procurement Committee considered a report of the Director of Finance and Resources, which advised of the forecast outturn position for revenue and capital expenditure and the Council’s treasury management activity as at the end of September 2024.

The Committee noted that the report had also been considered by Cabinet at its meeting held on 10^th December 2024 (their Minute 45/24 refers).

The net revenue forecast position after management action was for spend in 2024/25 of £10.2m over budget. Whilst not a wholly comparable position, at the same point in 2023/24 there was a projected overspend of £11.5m. Appendices to the report provided Revenue Position: a Detailed Service Breakdown of Forecast Outturn Position; the Capital Programme: Analysis of Budget/Technical Changes; the Capital Programme: Analysis of Programme Acceleration/(Rescheduling); and Prudential Indicators.

The Council continued to face budget pressures within both Adults and Children’s social care, Housing, and City Services. Other overspends were also being reported in Property Services and Business, Investment and Culture. These financial pressures were being caused by a combination of legacy inflation impacts, continued increases in service demand, complexity of cases and social care market conditions, income shortfalls due to reduced activity, and slippage in the delivery of some service savings. 

The Council’s position included a significant number of one-off actions that had been applied to reduce the overspend. Recognising that the underlying position was significantly higher, further urgent action was required to address the pressure in year and to prevent the 2025/26 position increasing to unmanageable levels.

The Council’s capital spending this year was projected to be £143m and included major schemes progressing across the city. The size of the programme and the nature of the projects within it continued to be fundamental to the Council’s role within the city. Although prevailing inflation rates looked to be stabilising, legacy inflationary pressures and high borrowing rates continued to affect capital projects. The assumption was that stand-alone projects that were already in-progress would be delivered as planned but that future projects that had not yet started would need to be re-evaluated to determine their deliverability within previously defined financial budgets.

The materiality of the financial pressures, both revenue and capital, had reaffirmed the imperative to maintain strict financial discipline and re-evaluate the Council’s medium-term financial position. This would be a priority across all services as the Council developed its future budget plans in the coming months.

RESOLVED that the Audit and Procurement Committee note the content of the report and confirm that it has no recommendations for the Cabinet.

Report of the Director of Law and Governance.

The Audit and Procurement Committee considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance that provided a summary of the Council’s performance during 2023/2024 in responding to requests for information received under Data Protection legislation. It also reported on the management of data protection security incidents and/or those reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and on data protection training.

Information was one of the Council’s greatest assets and its correct and effective use was a major responsibility and was essential to the successful delivery of the Council’s priorities. Ensuring that the Council had effective arrangements in place to manage and protect the information it held, both personal and business critical information, was a priority.

Data protection legislation set out the requirements on organisations to manage information assets appropriately and how they should respond to requests for information. The ICO was the UK’s independent supervisory authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promote openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals, and monitors compliance with legislation.

The Information Governance (IG) function supported the Council’s compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018, Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and Environmental Information Regulations (EIR). The Council had a statutory obligation to comply with this framework by responding appropriately to requests and managing personal data lawfully. The Information Governance Team assist the organisation in meeting these requirements by monitoring internal compliance, informing and advising on data protection obligations, providing advice and guidance and raising awareness on data protection matters.

The landscape in which public authorities were now operating had continued to change since the introduction of the GDPR and subsequently UKGDPR and the new Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) in 2018.

In March 2023, the Government introduced the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill which did not complete its passage through parliament prior to the UK parliamentary general election being called for July 2024. The new Government had subsequently introduced to parliament the Data (Use and Access) Bill with the stated purpose to “unlock the secure and effective use of data for the public interest”. While it retained some of the measures proposed in its predecessor, others were amended and some new elements introduced. Implications for local government would be monitored as the Bill progressed to ensure that the City Council would be able to meet the new requirements when they are introduced.

In June 2022, the ICO set out a revised approach to working more effectively with public authorities. This approach has seen an increased use of the ICO’s wider powers under data protection law, including warnings, enforcement notices and reprimands as well as changing its approach to the application of fines in the public sector and the ICO is currently considering the next steps.

The number of Freedom of Information Requests received by the Council in 2023/24, 1428 was higher (232) from the previous 2022/23 year. The Council responded to 81% of FOIA/EIR requests within the target  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

Report of the Director of Finance and Resources

The Audit and Procurement Committee considered a report of the Director of Finance and Resources that provided a summary of the Council's anti-fraud and error activity undertaken by the Internal Audit Service during the first half of the financial year 2024-25.

Fraud in the public sector had a national focus through the publication of “Fighting Fraud and Corruption Locally – The Local Government Counter Fraud and Corruption Strategy".  Whilst the national strategy states that the level of fraud in the public sector is significant, the current trends in fraud activity includes areas which Coventry City Council does not have responsibility for, for example, social housing, and the levels of identified / reported fraud against the Council remain at relatively low levels, in terms of both numbers and value.

The report documented the Council’s response to fraud and error during the first half of the financial year 2024-25 and was presented to the Audit and Procurement Committee in order to discharge its responsibility, as reflected in its terms of reference 'to monitor Council policies on whistle blowing and the fraud and corruption strategy'.

The Internal Audit Service was responsible for leading on the Council’s strategic response to the risk of fraud and error. The work of the team had focused on three main areas during 2024-25: National Fraud Initiative; Referrals and Investigations considers through the Council’s Fraud and Corruption Strategy; and Fraud awareness.

A summary of the key activity that has taken place during 2024-25 to date were:

National Fraud Initiative (NFI) – The NFI exercise was led by the Cabinet Office. The exercise took place every two years and matched electronic data within and between public bodies, with the aim of detecting fraud and error.  Internal Audit work in 2024-25 had been mainly focused on collating and submitting the datasets for the next exercise.  This was completed in early October 2024.  The matches were released in January 2025 and form part of the planned programme of work for 2025/26.  Matches relating to council tax single person discounts were released annually and now fall under the responsibility of the Revenues and Benefits Service.

Referrals and Investigations – From time to time, the Internal Audit Service would receive referrals or were asked to assist with investigations relating to employee misconduct and other fraud against the Council involving external individuals. Table two within the report indicated the number of referrals by source in 2024-25, along with figures for the previous three financial years.

It was important to note that there was no mechanism for determining the number of reports the Council should receive on an annual basis and it was very difficult to anticipate or identify the reasons behind fluctuations in numbers.  It was also worth noting that this information only reflected referrals made in respect of concerns relating to fraud and corruption and did not include other matters raised under the Whistleblowing Policy.

Of the nine referrals received, four led to a full investigation. The reasons for referrals not resulting in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.

Report of the Head of Customer and Business Services

The Audit and Procurement Committee considered a report of the Chief Executive, regarding complaints to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman 2023/24.

The Committee noted that the report had also been considered by the Cabinet Member for Policy and Leadership at his meeting held on 5^th December 2024 (Minute 9/24 refers) and the Ethics Committee at its meeting held on 9^th January 2025 (Minute 18/24 refers).

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) was the final stage for complaints about Councils, all adult social care providers (including care homes and home care agencies) and some other organisations providing local public services. It was a free service that investigated complaints in a fair and independent way and provided a means of redress to individuals for injustice caused by unfair treatment or service failure.

Coventry City Council’s Complaints Policy sets out how individual members of the public could complain to the Council, as well as how the Council would handle their compliments, comments and complaints. The Council also informed individuals of their rights to contact the LGSCO if they were not happy with the Council’s decision once they had exhausted the Council’s complaints process.

The LGSCO issued an annual letter to the Leader and Chief Executive of every Council, summarising the number and trends of complaints dealt with relating to that Council that year. The latest letter, issued on 17^th July 2024, covered complaints to the LGSCO relating to Coventry City Council between April 2023 and March 2024 (2023/24).

The report set out the number, trends and outcomes of complaints to the LGSCO relating to Coventry City Council in 2023/24. It focused on upheld complaints, service areas with a high number of complaints, compliance with Ombudsman’s recommendations, learning from complaints, comparisons with prior years, and how we compare to other local authorities.

RESOLVED that, the Audit and Procurement Committee:

1.  Considered the Council’s performance in relation to complaints to the LGSCO.

2.  Note the Council’s updated complaints process and guidance.

3.  Reviewed and were assured that the Council takes appropriate action in response to complaints investigated and where the Council is found to be at fault.

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

The Audit and Procurement Committee considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance that identified issues on which a further report/information had been requested or was outstanding so that the Committee were aware of them and could manage their progress.

Appendix 1 to the report provided details of an issue where a report had been requested to a meeting along with the anticipated date for consideration of the matter.

Appendix 2 of the report provided details of an item where information had been

requested outside the formal meeting.

RESOLVED that the Audit and Procurement Committee notes the Outstanding Issues report

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

The Audit and Procurement Committee considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance that detailed the Work Programme of scheduled issues to be considered by the Committee during the Municipal Year 2024/2025.

RESOLVED that the Audit and Procurement Committee notes the Work Programme for 2024/2025.

There were no other items of public business.