The Chief Internal Auditor, Mark Niblock, introduced his report that provided an update on the continued utilisation by the Internal Audit Service of a comprehensive quality assurance and improvement programme. The programme had been developed to comply with the requirements of the Public Sector Internal Auditing Standards (PSIAS) and to inform the Audit and Risk Management Committee of the outcome of the annual self-assessment exercise undertaken by the service.

The Chief Internal Auditor informed the Committee that the PSIAS require that the Head of Internal Audit developed and maintained a Quality Assurance and Improvement Programme (QAIP) to covers all aspects of the internal audit activity. He further informed that QAIP outlined measures which were applied to ensure that Internal Audit continued to operate effectively and efficiently and identified and responded to opportunities for improvement. These measures include:

·  An internal quality control checklist;

·  Customer Questionnaires and Annual Performance Evaluation Feedback Forms designed to obtain client feedback, the outcome of which facilitates effective monitoring of the internal audit activity and enables opportunities for improvement to be identified;

·  An Auditor Skills Appraisal Assessment system developed and implemented during 2015/16 that incorporates elaborate post audit assessments to identify improvement areas and any training/ development needs; and

·  Internal performance targets that are monitored and regularly reported to the Audit and Risk Management Committee.

The Chief Internal Auditor referred Members to Appendix 2 of his report that set out information in respect of compliance and evidence of the Council’s Internal Audit Service against the QAIP Review 2019/20.

The Chair thanked the Chief Internal Auditor for his report and asked if Wirral Council Officers were in contact with other public sector auditors / services. The Chief Internal Auditor informed that a significant amount of time was spent on this, with regular contact with other auditors across the North West, comparing delivery of services. He added that this will continue in the future.

Resolved – That the report be noted.