The Finance and Risk Committee of the Barbican Centre Board met on 30 September 2025 to discuss an internal audit update and a three-year health and safety plan. The committee was also scheduled to approve the minutes from its last meeting and to discuss a number of non-public items.

Health and Safety 3-Year Plan

The committee was scheduled to discuss the Health and Safety 3-Year Plan, a report from the Interim CEO of the Barbican Centre. The report itself is not included in the report pack.

Internal Audit Update

The committee was scheduled to receive an Internal Audit Update. The report from the Head of Internal Audit was intended to provide an update on internal audit activity related to the Barbican Centre since the last meeting of the committee in June 2025.

The report noted that Internal Audit provides assurance on the effectiveness of internal controls through delivery of its risk-focused audit programme. It also stated that the Internal Audit Section operates in accordance with the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards.

Key developments since the last update to the committee included:

• Finalisation of the audit of Barbican Centre Health and Safety.
• Completion of the 2024-25 Financial Controls audit second round follow-up.
• Initiation of the audit of Renewal Programme Governance and two follow-up exercises: 2024-25 Business Continuity and 2024-25 Safeguarding.

The report also included a summary of assurance work outcomes. Two recently completed Barbican-specific reviews were said to have highlighted key areas for improvement within the control frameworks:

• Barbican Centre Health and Safety: limited assurance was given in respect of the overall framework for ensuring appropriate practices through the Barbican Centre, and it was noted that issues from the 2024 risk reviews had not been fully resolved.
• Financial Controls Second Round Follow-Up: it was noted that seven of the eight original issues remained live, with progress demonstrated in some instances, and that a further round of follow-up would be carried out in November 2025 to evaluate the impact of action being taken to strengthen the control framework.

The report noted that as of early September 2025, there were twelve live high (red) and twenty-five medium (amber) priority recommendations, four and three of which were raised as part of the recently finalised Health and Safety audit.

The report recommended that the committee note the delivery position in respect of the ongoing programme of assurance work, the outcome of finalised reviews, the scope of work in progress, the live recommendations position and proposals for the forward programme of assurance work.

Other Matters

The committee was also scheduled to:

• Approve the public minutes and non-public summary of the last meeting held on 23 June 2025.
• Receive non-public minutes from 23 June 2025.
• Receive non-public appendices to be read in conjunction with the Internal Audit Update.
• Receive a Barbican Business Review, a Music Deep Dive, and a Salaries Deep Dive.
• Receive a Programming and Events Risk Register and a Risk Update.