The Audit Committee of Reigate and Banstead Council met on Tuesday 2 September 2025 to discuss internal audit progress, the internal audit plan, risk management and counter fraud measures. The committee was also scheduled to discuss and agree any changes to the schedule for the Audit Committee's Work Programme 2025/26 and note the Action Tracker. Some of the information relating to risk management was scheduled to be discussed in private session.

Risk Management

The committee was scheduled to note an update on risk management for the first quarter of 2025/26. The report pack included the Q1 strategic risk register as well as details of red-rated operational risks.

The strategic risk register included the following risks:

• Financial sustainability
• Local government sector sustainability and challenge
• Commercial investment
• Challenging economic conditions
• Cost pressures affecting the viability of council developments
• Organisational capacity and culture
• ICT network capacity and resilience
• Gatwick Airport
• Local Plan
• Climate change impact
• Fraud
• Local Government Reorganisation

The report noted some changes to the strategic risk register since the last quarter.

Regarding SR4 – Challenging Economic Conditions, it was noted that the government's Household Support Fund would no longer be shared with the council by Surrey County Council (SCC), and would instead be distributed directly to voluntary and community sector groups.

With regard to SR5 – Cost pressures affecting the viability of Council developments, the report mentioned that Merstham Recreation Ground had re-opened in May 2025, and that the Executive had approved a project for the modernisation of Horley Community Centre in May. It also noted that the purchase of properties for temporary and emergency accommodation was continuing in 2025/26.

On SR6 – Organisational capacity and culture, the report stated that progress had been made on the development of the People and Culture Plan, which had been approved by the Chief Executive (CEX), Senior Management Team (SMT), and Management Team. The plan was said to focus on ensuring the organisation has the right resources and addresses new people priorities in light of Local Government Reorganisation (LGR).

Regarding SR12 - Local Government Reorganisation, the report stated that the council had submitted two final proposals to the government in Q1 2025/26: one joint proposal with 8 other Surrey districts and boroughs proposing a 3 unitary model, and one joint proposal with Crawley proposing a cross boundary unitary authority. It also noted that the government had commenced its statutory consultation on Surrey LGR, to which the council would be responding. A new workstream on Legal & Governance was established within the LGR Programme in Q1, and a joint Project Management Office (PMO) had been established for the Districts & Boroughs, with a single point of contact for each authority. The council had also commenced a community governance review to explore whether new or different parish and town council arrangements would be beneficial.

The report also noted one red rated operational risk: OR10 – Bespoke configuration of financial system processes. It stated that the replacement of income management applications with a Cloud-based solution had gone live in June, and that work to implement the replacement for the current garden waste payments system had commenced. The upgrade of Unit 4 BWO was expected to take place in October / November 2025.

Internal Audit

The Audit Committee was scheduled to discuss several items relating to internal audit.

The committee was to review the Internal Audit Progress Report August 2025, which summarises internal audit's ongoing progress. The report includes:

• The monitoring of 'live' internal audit reports
• An update on progress against the annual audit plan and any subsequent revisions
• Acknowledgement of any actual or perceived impairments to internal audit independence
• Internal audit performance, planning and resourcing issues
• Results of audit assignments and insights.

The committee was also scheduled to approve the Internal Audit Plan 2025-26 (Q3), which provides an overview of intended use of internal audit resource. The plan was developed at a strategic level providing a value adding, and proportionate level of assurance aligned to the Council's strategic outcomes, and is based on a range of inputs including review of the Council's strategic risk register, sector knowledge and discussions with the Senior Management Team.

The report pack included Annex 1 Internal Audit Plan 2025-26 Q3, which details the audit assignments, audit sponsors, scope, corporate priority, risk register reference, assurance/advisory type, internal audit risk assessment and quarter. The audit assignments listed in the plan were:

• Information Governance – Data Protection
• Stock Management
• Health and Safety
• Annual Governance Statement
• LGR
• Housing Benefits
• Legal Services
• Tree Inspections
• Council Tax
• Rent Collection for Emergency and Temporary Accommodation
• Project Management Framework

The Audit Committee was also scheduled to note the arrangements for the pending external assessment of the Southern Internal Audit Partnership (SIAP) against the Global Internal Audit Standards in the UK Public Sector. The report pack included the Internal Audit External Quality Assessment and Annex 1 Quality Assurance Improvement Programme - GIAS UK Public Sector.

Finally, the committee was scheduled to note the Internal Audit Strategy 2025-28, which includes a vision, strategic objectives, and supporting initiatives for the internal audit function. The report pack included the Internal Audit Strategy, Annex 1 Internal Audit Strategy 2025-2028 and Annex 2 Feedback on Prioritisation of Objectives.

The vision of the Southern Internal Audit Partnership is:

'A collaborative Partnership delivering an innovative, customer focused, and value adding audit and advisory service aligned to organisational objectives and improved outcomes.'

The three strategic objectives that have been prioritised to help attain this vision are:

• Agile Auditing: Innovate to explore a more agile approach to the audit process, building efficiencies and producing more timely feedback to the organisation.
• Optimisation of Standards: Embrace and prioritise conformance and embedding of the Global Internal Audit Standards in the UK Public Sector and maximising their potential to benefit the organisation and the internal audit function.
• Data Analytics by Default: Further engage with the organisation to enhance and optimise the full potential of data analytics in the internal audit process.

Counter Fraud Performance and Policies

The Audit Committee was scheduled to discuss counter fraud performance and policies. The report pack included the Counter Fraud Performance and Policies Update and Annex 1 for Counter Fraud Performance and Policies Update.

The report provided an update on the performance of the council's counter fraud team in detecting and preventing attempts of fraud made against the council. The total savings for 2024/25 were reported as £812,500, including cashable savings of £168,900. In quarter 1 2025/26 the savings were £31,800, including cashable savings of £6,500.

The report also noted that fraud awareness training had been rolled out to online staff and members from December 2024, and that training for offline staff would be carried out in due course.

Work Programme and Action Tracker

The committee was scheduled to discuss and agree any changes to the schedule for Audit Committee's Work Programme 2025/26 and note the Action Tracker. The Forward work programme - Audit Committee and July 25 Audit Action Tracker 2025-26 were included in the report pack.

The action tracker provided an update on actions requested at the meeting on 1 July 2025.