This report provides an update on the Council’s 2019/20 Strategic Risk Register (Quarter 1), in line with the requirements of the Council’s risk management strategy.

Paul Harrington, Chief Auditor, submitted a report presenting the updated Corporate Strategic Risk Register, which was attached to the report at Appendix 1.  The Register was presented to the Committee at least once every six months and included an assessment of the risk appetite for each individual risk, which gave an indication of the level of risk that the Council was willing to accept to meet its long-term objectives.  In order to focus attention on the areas of greatest risk, it was recommended that the Register should only include the key current risks that had not been mitigated to an acceptable risk appetite level.

The report stated that, although guidance was provided in relation to the scoring of risks, with a view to providing as much consistency as possible, it still remained very much a subjective process. The primary aim of the Strategic Risk Register was to identify those key vulnerabilities that the Corporate Management Team (CMT) considered should be closely monitored.  The Committee discussed the relative merits of including the Climate Emergency as a key strategic risk and whether the extensive mitigation work to reduce the risk of injury and death in the Council’s residential accommodation should be reflected in a lowering of the RAG score for this risk.  In order to keep these issues under review, CMT would continue to consider regular reports on the Strategic Risk Register and discuss the most appropriate risks to monitor through this process. 

Resolved:    That the report be noted.