The Risk and Insurance Officer presented the report of the Chief Executive, which advised 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 that the Council’s Risk Management Framework was effective. He commented that a key output from the framework was the Corporate Risk Register and to support this Committee’s work in considering the effectiveness of the framework, a report was now presented on a regular basis detailing the key risks facing the authority and how they were being managed.

Governance arrangements for the Register required that it be formally reviewed each quarter with the review being undertaken by the Chief Executive Strategy Group (CESG). This task was 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 and progress in tackling the existing corporate risks.

In line with its new terms of reference the Corporate Governance Group had considered a draft of the Risk & Insurance Officer’s report at its meeting on 15 October. The Group indicated that four matters were significant enough to warrant escalation to CESG. These were incorporated into an updated version. CESG undertook the quarter two review at its meeting on 27 October 2014.

Two risks in directorate registers were considered.

(i).  Potential over spend within the children’s area of the Families & Wellbeing Directorate - The likelihood for this risk had been increased sharply in quarter two. However the scale of the potential over spend (£0.5m) together with the existing and further planned controls meant that the risk did not warrant addition to the Corporate Register.

(ii).Withdrawal of support for the content management system within the Council’s web-site in early 2015 could affect the site’s security and effectiveness - The potential impact of this risk made it of corporate significance in the short term. Following a request for action, plans were being developed for an early upgrade to the web-site.

Two potential new risks that were not reflected in directorate registers were also considered.

(i).  The forthcoming retirement of the existing Chief Executive could create a short term capacity problem and uncertainty about the Council’s future strategic direction - Whilst this risk was added to the Corporate Risk Register it was recognised that there were significant controls in place to mitigate it.

(ii).Capacity pressures with the Procurement Team could prevent the Council from delivering compliant procurement - This was recognised as a corporate risk and short term actions were agreed pending the conclusion of the consultation on the restructure.

An updated version of the information presented to this Committee on 17 September concerning the status of actions being taken to mitigate the existing corporate risks was reviewed. Most actions were progressing as planned and no change to the scores for the risks was warranted. Updated information on progress in addressing the existing corporate risks would be collated to support the quarter 3 review of the Register. Directorates would be asked to provide more detailed information on their most critical risks for consideration by the Corporate Governance Group. The Quarter three review was expected to take place in January 2015.

Responding to comments from Members, the Risk and Insurance Officer assured the Committee that the graphical presentation of corporate risk scores would be revised and an explanatory narrative included. With regard to descriptions of some of the corporate risks he acknowledged that some of the issues were very specific but they did focus minds although it was expected they would be reviewed in the coming year.

Resolved - That further reports on the Corporate Risk Register be presented to future meetings of this Committee.