Agenda item

(a)       That the report be accepted; and

(b)       That the Committee is satisfied that the issues raised in the report are being adequately addressed.

The Principal Auditor presented the update on progress of the Internal Audit department including changes to the audit plan, action tracking and investigations.  He gave a brief overview of actions with revised due dates six months beyond the original date to give assurance that progress was being made, and confirmed that minor slippage on performance indicators did not give rise to any concerns.

On final reports issued, the recommendations for the ‘amber-red’ review on Alltami Stores were almost complete.  On the red ‘limited’ assurance review for Planning Enforcement, the Principal Auditor indicated that he was satisfied that progress was being made on addressing the recommendations and the Senior Auditor provided an overview of the findings of the review.

In line with the agreed practice for red reviews, the Chief Officer (Planning & Environment) and Development Manager were in attendance to provide further background and assurance on actions being taken.  The revised Planning Enforcement Policy, due for consultation, would improve the prioritisation of cases and was supported by a restructure of the Development Management team in which the enforcement function would be more embedded.  The approach for the two area teams to work on a caseload basis would improve communications and strengthen arrangements for dealing with cases in the event of any long-term absence.  The recording of all complaints in the same way would ensure that actions were more accurately tracked.

The Chief Executive said that the Environment Overview & Scrutiny Committee had been supportive of the policy and would review progress on its implementation through six monthly reporting.  He suggested that the Audit Committee may also wish to gain assurance by a future item on its Forward Work Programme.

Sally Ellis suggested that a future item be scheduled for the Audit Committee on the actions completed and she asked if adequate resources were available to upgrade IT systems to support the new enforcement process.  The Development Manager advised that the recommendations would be subject to a follow-up review by Internal Audit and that the Planning Strategy Group would track performance progress against Welsh Government indicators.  A business case was being prepared for capital funding for new ICT software to replace the existing FLARE software system.

In response to a query from Councillor Chris Dolphin, it was confirmed that the pending referrals had been re-assigned amongst the team.  It was noted that some cases were pending for specific reasons and that the aim was to reduce the number of active cases to around 180.  Further details were shared on the team restructure.

During discussion, Councillor Arnold Woolley proposed that the Committee accept the item and indicate that it was satisfied that the issues raised in the report were being addressed.  This was supported by the Committee.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the report be accepted; and

(b)       That the Committee is satisfied that the issues raised in the report are being adequately addressed.