Agenda and draft minutes

To confirm the minutes of 24 November 2025.

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 November 2025 were approved and signed.

Councillor Mrs French referred to the previous discussions concerning the introduction of an Independent Person to the committee and she asked when that matter will come before the committee. Peter Catchpole stated that the report has been produced but will form part of the agenda at a future meeting. Councillor Mrs French questioned that, with the proposed Local Government Reorganisation coming forward in April 2028, whether it would no longer be a worthwhile exercise to implement such a position on the committee.

The purpose of this report is for members to review and approve the final Audit Results Report Year Ended 31 March 2025.

Members received a presentation from Debbie Hanson and Jake Day of Ernst & Young (EY), the Council’s external auditors.

Members asked the following questions.

·       Councillor Mrs French stated that she does have concerns with regards to the property and the equipment point that was raised and, in her opinion, due to Local Government Reorganisation (LGR), it is essential that records are brought up to date as soon as possible in order that records are accurate and quantify what the Council owns. Debbie Hanson explained that with regards to PPE they have not identified any issues in terms of concerns about the completeness or accuracy of the Council’s records with regards to fixed assets in relation to those which are valued on an annual basis. She added that the Council does hold some categories of assets at historic cost which is in line with the CIPFA code and the only reason why there is no assurance for those is because there has been no testing of additions and disposals of those assets in the two years where disclaimed opinions were issued. Debbie Hanson explained that the asset under construction is quite a specific point and in general there were no issues identified with either the valuation, the existence or the rights and obligations and ownership of the assets.

·       Councillor John Clark stated that there appears to be several areas of concern contained within the report and he asked for an indication as to where the Council would sit if a benchmarking exercise was undertaken with the other authorities that EY engage with. He questioned whether, in their opinion, they would place the Council on a good, intermediate or needs improvement position in order to give him some reassurance in terms of where EY see the Council positioned and where they are likely to find themselves moving forward. Debbie Hanson explained that the areas of main concern which have been highlighted are contained within the table that she referred to which dictate the assessment of the procedures to support the audit. She added that it has been noted that capacity is the key issue and the colour coding in the executive summary on Page 11 demonstrates that there are a number of red and amber areas. Debbie Hanson made the point that the Council should be looking towards achieving a status where the whole of the table is coloured green. She added that when comparing the Council to other authorities that she works with there are some where the table is all green and she made the point that there are a few issues to be addressed which, in her opinion, is always difficult for relatively small councils due to the fact that the Council has lots of other priorities such as budget setting and LGR is going to increase the workload of the Council significantly. Debbie Hanson expressed the opinion that many small councils do need to look at the capacity of the Finance Team and the support that they receive from  ...  view the full minutes text for item ARMC20/25

To report progress against the Internal Audit Plan 2025/26 and the work undertaken since the last meeting of Committee in November 2025, and the resulting level of assurance from the work.

To advise of any developments within the Internal Audit Team, amendments to the Plan, and any significant internal control or governance issues.

To provide a tracking information on the implementation of agreed audit actions and further progress and status update on those actions now overdue.

Deborah Moss presented the report.

Members asked the following questions:

·       Councillor Mrs French asked if she could be provided with the findings of the Anglia Revenues Partnership (ARP) enforcement audit as she is involved with them in her role as the Portfolio Holder. She stated that she is concerned with regards to the number of complaints that she is receiving due to the lack of communication regarding complaints and not being addressed without any intervention by herself which, in her view, is not acceptable. Councillor Mrs French added that she also has concerns on how much the Council is owed and she would like further details concerning the amount owed and an explanation as to why the outstanding debt is not being chased. Deborah Moss explained that with regards to the enforcement audit the testing for that has been completed and the provisional audit opinion is that substantial assurance was given. She added that the audit does not go down to the level of detail concerning complaints or the debt as it is purely enforcement, but she confirmed that the process itself is working properly and the controls are in place.

·       Councillor Mrs French stated that with regards to ARP she is aware that there is a very high level of fraud cases which ARP are working exceptionally hard to investigate and deal with and the fraud equates to millions of pounds across all of the partnerships. Deborah Moss agreed that they are working very hard, she deals with them on a regular basis and is aware of the work they are undertaking and stated that the Council publishes the statistics annually on the website. Peter Catchpole added to put the word fraud into context in this case it mostly relates to the Council Tax single persons discount which is where people are not declaring that they have additional residents residing with them. He explained that the Cambridgeshire Fraud Hub exists and Councillor Mrs French was involved with the implementation of that and it carries out some excellent work on that type of fraud in particular and it is the single persons discount where most of the financial recovery comes from.

·       Councillor Mrs French added that she would like to add her thanks to the County Council because without their substantial contribution the work surrounding fraud would not take place and, as Peter Catchpole stated, it is in the region of 75% of the fraud cases being as a result of single persons discount being claimed when it should not be.

·       Councillor Benney stated that the single persons discount is a massive potential fraud area and he is aware that Councillor Mrs French has reported several cases to ARP, but they do not appear to be responsive enough. He added that it is not just the single persons discount which needs to be considered as there maybe residents who are also in receipt of benefits and live with a partner who is earning £30,000 per year and, therefore, the additional  ...  view the full minutes text for item ARMC21/25

To provide an update to the Audit and Risk Management Committee on the Council’s Corporate Risk Register.

Stephen Beacher presented the report to members.

Members AGREED the latest Corporate Risk Register.

For information purposes.

Members considered the Audit and Risk Management Committee workplan.

Deborah Moss stated that members are welcome to feed into the workplan and advise of any matters that they wish to bring forward to a future meeting. She added that she has referred to the Economic, Crime and Corporate Transparency Act and the duties upon the Council to prevent fraud and it was agreed that she would like to provide a briefing to the committee prior to the next meeting.

Deborah Moss stated that if members would like any training on specific topics then please advise her because as a committee, they have undertaken very little training. She added that this is something that she would welcome because when she undertakes the self-assessment with regards to how effective they are as a committee that will be one of the areas that the committee needs to self-assess themselves on. Councillor Benney stated that he agrees and quite a lot of the training which members have received is historic and, in his view, the training should begin again at the basics in order to bring the committee up to a high standard.

It was agreed that an invitation should be sent out to ask a representative from the Cambridgeshire Fraud Hub to attend a future meeting.

Members noted the workplan.

There were no items of topical interest.