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

Darren Carter presented a report setting out progress with the Implementation of Audit Recommendations. A copy of the Implementation of Audit Recommendations Tracker for September 2022 was attached to the report at Appendix 1.

The report explained that each recommendation set out in Appendix 1 was marked with a percentage complete which correlated to a red/amber/green rating (up to 25% complete: red, between 26% and 75%: amber, over 75% complete: green).  Any recommendations that were less than 50% complete but had exceeded their agreed completion date were also marked red.

The tracker now had 91 high and medium risk recommendations from Internal Audit, of which 29 (31.9%) were currently green but not complete, 42 (46.2%) were amber and 15 (16.5%) were red.  Five recommendations had now been completed and would be removed from the next report and 13 recommendations had been added to the tracker since the last report.

It was noted that, following the request made by Councillors at the last Committee, an additional column had been added to the tracker to show the original implementation date for each audit recommendation. Inclusion of this additional information had highlighted the need to review the rating for each recommendation as it appeared that, in some instances, ratings had not been applied consistently and in accordance with the stated policy.

Resolved:

(1)           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.

(2)           That a review of the tracker be conducted to check and amend any incorrectly rated recommendations.