Report of Maxine O'Mahony, Executive Director Strategy and Resources & Alison Chubbock, Assistant Director of Finance & S151 Officer.

Alison Chubbock, the Assistant Director of Finance & S151 Officer presented the report that provided Members with an update on the CIPFA Financial Management (FM) Code and the progress against the Code to date for information.

This Code had recently been designed to support good practice in financial management standards.  An analysis had been carried out by the Finance Team and the red, amber, green (RAG) rating showed that this Council was doing well against this Code in most areas but there was room for some improvement.  Referring to page 55 of the agenda pack, a summary of the actions that the Finance Team would take over the coming months to bring the Council up to a ‘green’ performance in all areas were highlighted. 

On page 54 of the agenda pack, Councillor James pointed out spelling errors under ‘J’ and ‘O’ on Appendix A.

The Chairman was pleased to note that this Council broadly conformed with the new Code and looking at the areas that were highlighted on the ‘RAG’ rating he felt there were no major structural concerns in terms of performance. As one of the few local authorities that did not have any net borrowing needs to fund, he imagined that compared to some authorities, this Council was at less risk.  In terms of the timetable, he asked if this report would either have to be approved by this Committee or be recommended to Full Council for approval. 

Members were informed that approval was not required at this stage, but for the current financial year 2021/22 this would form part of the audit of accounts that this Committee would be asked to approve, and Ernst & Young the Council’s External Auditors, would audit progress against this Code.

The report and progress against the CIPFA FM Code was otherwise noted.