This report sets out a summary of those high and medium risk Internal Audit recommendations which remain outstanding together with an updated management response.

Charlie Stewart, Executive Director of Resources, presented a report setting out a summary of Internal Audit recommendations and updated management responses since the last Committee.  At the last meeting on 24 January 2023, it was agreed to focus only on audit recommendations with either a ‘limited’ or ‘no assurance’ opinion in the tracker report which was attached at Appendix 1. This meant that there were currently no comparison figures available and trends would start to be included in the next report in July 2023.  In addition, it had been previously agreed that priority 3 recommendations would not be added to the tracker, as these were advisory points made by the Chief Auditor, which would allow the Committee to focus on the high to medium risk recommendations. 

Prior to reporting to Committee, officers responsible for implementing the specific recommendations had been asked to update the audit tracker. Each recommendation had been marked with a percentage complete, which correlated to a red (up to 25%), amber (26%-75%), or green (76%+) rating. However, any recommendations that were less than 50% complete but had exceeded their agreed completion date had also been markedred.  There were 49 recommendations currently on the tracker, of which nine had been completed since the last meeting and would be removed prior to the next meeting. Eleven recommendations had been added to the tracker since the last report.

The Committee noted the Audit Recommendations (ARs) 297-304, which referred to Direct Payments (see Minute 38 above), set out the action expected to address the limited assurance opinion given by Internal Audit.  The Committee also noted that the status of ARs 299-302 was ‘red’.

Resolved:     That the high and medium risk Internal Audit recommendations and the responses to those risks be noted as set out in Appendix 1 to the report.