The Chief Executive reported that under the terms of the Council’s Constitution, one of the functions of the Audit and Risk Management Committee was to provide independent assurance of the effectiveness of the Council’s risk management framework. The Corporate Risk Register was a key output from the risk management framework and to support the Committee, a report was now presented on a regular basis, detailing the key risks facing the authority and how they were being managed. The Corporate Risk Register summarised those areas of uncertainty which had the greatest potential to prevent or frustrate delivery of the Corporate Plan and confirmed how the authority was seeking to tackle them. At a strategic level the risks helped to inform future priorities and interventions and the actions required to mitigate the risks also influenced the content of Directorate Service Plans and the allocation of resources. In that way, they were a key component of the corporate planning process and so success in managing those risks was a key factor in overall corporate performance.

Governance arrangements for the register required that it be formally reviewed each quarter. The review was undertaken by the Chief Executive’s Strategy Group (CESG), informed by a report from the Risk and Insurance Officer, which summarised potential new risks for consideration and significant movements in Directorate and Programme risk registers.

The Liberal Democrat Spokesperson referred to the controls for the corporate safeguarding risk (CU1) (minute 61 (18 March 2014) refers) not having reflected actions taken to address adult safeguarding. He noted that the issue had now been addressed but questioned whether or not it may be more appropriate to have separate risk categories, one for children and one for vulnerable adults. In response, the Strategic Director – Transformation and Resources commented that he would be pleased to take this comment back for further consideration by the CESG.

In response to a further question from a Member regarding the need to replace the Council’s IT hardware and software, the Head of Financial Services indicated that much of the equipment had been delivered to IT Services and the roll-out was due to commence imminently and to be completed by the end of the calendar year.

Resolved –

(1)  That the report be noted.

(2)  That further reports on the Corporate Risk Register be presented to future meetings of the Committee.