The Chief Internal Auditor reported that to comply with best professional practice the Audit and Risk Management Committee was required to complete an annual report to the Cabinet on the work it had undertaken. He presented a draft Annual Report for 2011/2012, which had been prepared by the Chair in consultation with Internal Audit, and in accordance with the CIPFA best practice publication ‘A Toolkit for Local Authority Audit Committees’. The report demonstrated how the Committee had fulfilled its terms of reference during a very difficult year and how it was fully committed to helping to improve the Council’s governance and control environments during what was expected to be a very challenging year ahead, following the recent publication of external reports highly critical of the Councils governance arrangements.

Reference was made to the continuing active involvement of the Council in the civil law reform process. The Committee was advised that the two yearly external actuarial report commissioned to review the sum required to fund liability claims within the limits of the self-insured liability was not being conducted this year.

Resolved – That the draft Audit and Risk Management Committee Annual Report 2011/2012 be approved and referred to the Cabinet.