Issue - meetings

That the updated Code of Corporate Governance be endorsed for adoption as part of the Council’s Constitution.

The Chief Executive introduced a report on the annual review of the Code of Corporate Governance prior to consideration by the Constitution & Democratic Services Committee in March.  No substantial changes had been made to the previous version for 2020/21.

The Internal Audit Manager drew attention to Section 2 of the document detailing governance arrangements during the emergency situation.

The Chief Executive noted Councillor Johnson’s suggestion for this section to form part of an appendix to future versions of the Code to retain learning from the national emergency.

In response to Councillor Heesom’s comments on Member involvement with the 2020/21 Annual Governance Statement, arrangements were in hand to plan the workshop with the six nominated individuals as agreed at the previous meeting.

Sally Ellis spoke about the potential to expand on principle E (developing the Council’s capacity) to reflect on learning from the national emergency.  The Chief Executive said that capacity and resilience could be more clearly referenced in the next version of the Code.

Officers responded to a number of points raised by Allan Rainford on the procurement of additional technology used during the emergency situation and the review of non-essential spend to help mitigate the overall projected overspend.  On the work of the Internal Audit team, the officers gave examples of advisory work and ‘real-time’ audit work undertaken to give assurance on decision-making during that period.  The Chief Executive commented that this advisory work had been invaluable.

The recommendation was moved by Councillor Johnson and seconded by Allan Rainford.

RESOLVED:

That the updated Code of Corporate Governance be endorsed for adoption as part of the Council’s Constitution.