Audit and Standards Committee

Audit and Standards Committee   The Audit and Standards Committee will   Audit functions  

1.  Support a comprehensive understanding of governance across the organisation and among all those charged with governance, fulfilling the principles of good governance.

2.  Consider the effectiveness of the authority’s risk management arrangements. It should understand the risk profile of the organisation and seek assurances that active arrangements are in place on risk-related issues, for both the body and its collaborative arrangements.

3.  Monitor the effectiveness of the system of internal control, including arrangements for financial management, ensuring value for money, supporting standards and ethics and managing the authority’s exposure to the risks of fraud and corruption.

4.  Be satisfied that the authority’s accountability statements, including the annual governance statement, properly reflect the risk environment, and any actions required to improve it, and demonstrate how governance supports the achievement of the authority’s objectives.

5.  Support the maintenance of effective arrangements for financial reporting and review the statutory statements of account and any reports that accompany them.

6.  Consider the arrangements in place to secure adequate assurance across the council’s full range of operations and collaborations with other entities.

7.  In relation to the council’s internal audit functions:

a.  Oversee its independence, objectivity, performance and conformance to professional standards.

b.  Support effective arrangements for internal audit.

c.  Promote the effective use of internal audit within the assurance framework.

8.  Consider the opinion, reports and recommendations of external audit and inspection agencies and their implications for governance, risk management or control, and monitor management action in response to the issues raised by external audit.

9.  Contribute to the operation of efficient and effective external audit arrangements, supporting the independence of auditors and promoting audit quality.

10.Support effective relationships between all providers of assurance, audits and inspections, and the organisation, encouraging openness to challenge, review and accountability.

Standards functions

11.Promote and maintain high standards of conduct by councillors and co-opted members.

12.Assist the councillors and co-opted members to observe the Members’ Code of Conduct.

13.Advise the Council on the adoption or revision of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

14.Monitor the operation of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

15.Advise, train or arrange to train councillors and co-opted members on matters relating to the Members’ Code of Conduct.

16.Grant dispensations to councillors and co-opted members from requirements relating to interests set out in the Members’ Code of Conduct so far as not delegated to the Monitoring Officer.

17.Assist and advise parish councils in the city if requested and as appropriate in relation to the discharge of functions 11 – 16 above in respect of their parish councillors.

18.Deal with written allegations that a councillor or co-opted member (or former councillor or co-opted member) of the Council or a parish councillor or a former parish councillor in the City has failed, or may have failed, to comply with the Members’ Code of Conduct.

19.Deal with complaints that a councillor or co-opted member of the Council has failed, or may have failed, to comply with the one of the Council’s local protocols.

20.Promote and maintain high standards of conduct by officers.

21.Assist officers to observe the Code of Conduct for Employees.

22.Advise the Council on the adoption or revision of the Code of Conduct for Employees.

23.Monitor the operation of the Code of Conduct for Employees.

24.Review and revise the levels of allowances and expenses for the Independent Persons.

25.Approve a version for publication of the arrangements for dealing with complaints against members and review and amend such documentation from time to time as it thinks fit.

26.Decide what actions to take in respect of a member who is found on a hearing to have failed to comply with the Code of Conduct, including: a.  Issuing a formal censure. b.  Recommending to Council, or to the Parish Council, the issue of a formal censure by the Council or by the Parish Council. c.  Publishing its findings in respect of the Member’s conduct. d.  Reporting its findings to Council, or to the Parish Council, for information. e.  Recommending to the Council, or to the relevant Parish Council, that the Member be removed from any or all Committees or Sub-Committees (subject to the approval of the member’s Group if applicable). f.  Recommending to the Council, or to the Parish Council, that the Member be removed from being the chair or vice chair of any Committees or Sub-Committees. g.  Recommending to the Leader of the Council that the Member be removed from the Cabinet or removed from particular Portfolio responsibilities. h.  Instructing the Monitoring Officer to, or recommending that the Parish Council, arrange training for the Member. i.  Recommending to the Council, or to the Parish Council, that the Member be removed, from one or more outside appointments to which he/she has been appointed or nominated by the Council or by the Parish Council.  

The Standards (Urgent Dispensations) Sub-Committee   The Sub-Committee will deal with urgent applications for dispensations from the declaration of interests requirements so far as not delegated to the Monitoring Officer.