To receive a report on the Council’s Strategic Risk Register for Quarter 2.

Paul Harrington, Chief Auditor, submitted a schedule updating the Committee on the Q2 status of the Council’s 2021/22 Strategic Risk Register (SRR), in line with the requirements of the Council’s Risk Management Strategy.  The SRR was attached to the report at Appendix 1.

The report explained that the SRR had been developed to provide a focused and high level overview of strategic risks for staff, councillors and other stakeholders, and was supplemented by more detailed directorate, service and project risk registers.  The primary aim of the SRR was to identify those key vulnerabilities that needed to be closely monitored.  In many cases this would be because the risk was relatively new and, whilst being effectively managed, the associated control framework was yet to be fully defined and embedded. 

The SRR highlighted ten risks, three of which ‘Not achieving the budget savings, controlling costs and achieving income targets’, ‘Failure to adapt to the impacts of climate change and deliver zero carbon commitments with negative impacts for residents and businesses, and for Council services, infrastructure and reputation and ‘Cyber-attack resulting in service disruption, data loss or damage, financial loss and/or reputational damage’ were currently rated as ‘red’.

Resolved:     That the Council’s Strategic Risk Register, as at September 2021, be noted.