Issue - meetings

That, subject to changing the heading within section 8 of the Policy to “Assessing Risk against Risk Appetite”, the Risk Management Policy for 2023/24, its Risk Appetite Statement for 2023/24 and the updated Corporate Risk Register be approved.

Councillor Power introduced the report and stated that following discussion at Audit and Governance Committee on 2 March 2023, section 8 of the policy had been amended to clarify the assessment of risk against the risk appetite.  .

At the invitation of the Leader, Councillor Godfrey addressed Cabinet as summarised briefly below.

Councillor Godfrey supported the risk management strategy and welcomed the development of the approach towards risk.  However, he highlighted the concerns raised at Audit and Governance Committee that the policy wording causing confusion.  He also questioned the wording used in paragraph 12.9 of the report which appeared to imply that it was an officer decision to agree the council’s risk appetite.

Councillor Power responded to the comments made and confirmed that the policy did stipulate that officers assessed identified  risks against the agreed risk appetite (agreed by Cabinet).  However, it was agreed that the wording of a heading within section 8 of the Policy would be rephrased to clarify this point.

Cabinet agreed to the following for the reasons set out above and outlined in the report.

RESOLVED:

That, subject to changing the heading within section 8 of the Policy to “Assessing Risk against Risk Appetite”, the Risk Management Policy for 2023/24, its Risk Appetite Statement for 2023/24 and the updated Corporate Risk Register be approved.

Councillor Power (Cabinet Member for Finance and Value) introduced the report and stated that, following discussion of risk at Scrutiny Committee on 27 February 2023, report CAB3381 would be changed prior to consideration at Cabinet to clarify the meaning of the “RAG” (red, amber, green) bands in Section 6 of the Risk Management Policy.

The Service Lead – Corporate Support introduced the report and set out the main changes since the previous year, as summarised in paragraph 12.9 of the report.

The Corporate Head of Finance confirmed that the wording of section 9 of the policy would be considered further to try to aid understanding.  It was also suggested that the committee consider the policy’s wording in more detail at a future meeting to suggest further developments in terms of clarity and overall understanding.

RESOLVED:

That the Cabinet Member for Finance and Value have regard to the discussion of this committee on the policy in her presentation of report CAB3381 which would be considered by Cabinet at its meeting on 16 March 2023.