Archived decisions

At a meeting of the GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE of HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL held at The Castle, Winchester on 20 September 2007.

PRESENT:

Councillors:

104. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Collett.

105. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

All Members who believe they have a personal or prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting must declare that interest and, having regard to the circumstances described in paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the County Council's Code of Conduct, consider whether to leave the meeting whilst the matter is discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with paragraph 12 of the Code. The declaration should be made at the time of the relevant debate.

106. MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting of the committee held on 28 June 2007 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

107. AUDIT COMMISSION ANNUAL GOVERNANCE REPORT 2006/07

Alistair Rankine, representing the Audit Commission, presented the Commission's draft Annual Governance Report 2006/07 (Item 5 in the Minute Book) providing a summary of the work carried out by the Commission during its 2006/07 audit of the County Council's accounts. The report set out the conclusions reached by the Commission and its recommendations to the Governance Committee. The Committee noted that, in paragraph 27, "Appendix 8" should read "Appendix 7".

The key messages were good news for the County Council and for the people of Hampshire. The Commission proposed to issue an unqualified audit opinion on 28 September 2007. The Committee was pleased to receive this independent acknowledgement of the high quality of the County Council's governance arrangements. Members were also pleased to note that the officers had already acted on the three systems-related issues mentioned in the Commission's report.

The Commission's work on the County Council's arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources would also result in the issue of an unqualified opinion. The Commission was satisfied that the County Council had proper arrangements in place for each of the twelve criteria that the Commission specified. The Committee welcomed the Commission's conclusion whilst noting that the Commission's "use of resources" assessment of the County Council was still being finalised.

108. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK

The Committee considered and approved the report of the Head of Corporate and Legal Services and Monitoring Officer and County Treasurer (Item 6 in the Minute Book) concerning how the County Council might wish to deal with the new corporate governance ground rules issued by CIPFA and SOLACE. Members were mindful that the detailed guidance referred to in the report was still far from complete and were concerned about the adverse effect of the new guidance on the County Council's limited resources. Whilst accepting the officers' advice as to how best the County Council should respond to the new regime, the Committee agreed that the Audit Commission should be made aware of its concerns.

RESOLVED:

a) that the proposed approach to the review of the County Council's corporate governance arrangements in the light of the new mandatory requirements be approved;

b) that the Head of Corporate and Legal Services be instructed to write to the Audit Commission expressing the Committee's concerns at the mandatory imposition of the revised code of governance part way through the current financial year and the consequential adverse impact on the County Council's resources and that the Audit Commission be asked to defer implementation of the revised guidance to the financial year 2008/09 in order to ensure a smooth transition to the new process.

109. RISK MANAGEMENT - TRAINING FOR COUNTY COUNCILLORS

The Chief Executive reported arrangements being drawn up for members of the Cabinet and the Governance Committee jointly in relation to the management of risk. An event was under consideration for 5 November or 19 November and details would be confirmed at the earliest possible opportunity.

110 ANNUAL AUDIT OPINION 2006/07

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Adult Services (Item 8 in the Minute Book) updating members on the progress made by Adult Services in relation to the Annual Internal Audit Opinion 2006/07 received by the Committee at its previous meeting. Rea Mattocks, Director of Adult Services, and Jos Creese, Head of IT Services, attended for this item and answered members' questions, explained the actions taken in response to the audit in more detail and highlighted subsequent performance improvements.

The Committee noted and welcomed the progress made by Adult Services in responding to the main issues raised in the summary of Annual Internal Audit Opinions.

111 MEMBERS'ATTENDANCE AT CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS 2006/07

The Committee received and noted the report of the Chief Executive (Item 9 in the Minute Book). The Chairman reported his decision, as Leader of the Council, that Councillor Glen would attend the County Council's Network Annual Conference on 12/13 November as his appointed deputy.