Issue - meetings

Under its terms of reference, the Committee is also required to note the Council’s Corporate Risk Register and be satisfied appropriate mitigating actions are being completed in a timely manner.

Mr Minesh Jani, Head of Audit and Risk Management, introduced the report.

The meeting heard:

·         A number of local authorities who used the North London Waste Authority were potentially exposed to a financial risk of the levy being a lot higher than they thought. It could be millions. There was a governance framework set up to try to understand how the North London Waste Authority got to the position it had done and the potential exposure for Councils. The intention was to use the audit process to understand the detail and manage the risk. The Council was subject to potential increases in the levy year on year in line with inflation, but the particular risk highlighted was around the development of a new energy facility that was to replace the current facility which was out of date. 

·         In relation to the cost control over the housing delivery program, the left hand-side was the actual risk and on the right-hand side where it said “internal audit assurance” was trying to give assurance over the management of the risk. Due to the financial position of the Council, steps had been taken to try to manage spend better. There was a spend control panel with oversight of all spend across the Council. The audit was trying to support the work of the panel by taking a sample of payments that are made and ensuring or testing that actually it followed the right path before the spend was committed. The Council was trying to give assurance as to the effectiveness of the arrangements that the authority set up and whether there was any leakage in the way the process was being used by officers in the Council.

·         The Assurance Map of Corporate Risks had some blanks. When the annual report was brought to the committee, some of the blanks would be filled in addition to detailing if there was any assurance given from the previous couple of years where the audit work could inform the management of the risks.

·         A lot of Councils were finding it hard to fill Planning vacancies. For Haringey, it was quite an important area of operations because of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The service was trying a lot of things to try to fill the vacancies to meet their statutory duties. As at 30 November2025, the risk exposure was high and further mitigations would have to be found.     

·         In relation to building controls, the exposure to risk was high and on its way to becoming a serious issue.     

·         Councils were struggling to be able to attract staff that they wanted. These included accountants, lawyers, technicians on digital services and others. A number of people had moved into other sectors for financial reasons. Others had decided to go and work through an agency. The Council had a vacancy for a Claims Manager for two years.

·         The review of our governance and the identification of significant governance issues was one which the Council went through the entirety of the Council operations  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11

Under its terms of reference, the Committee is also required to note the Council’s Corporate Risk Register and be satisfied appropriate mitigating actions are being completed in a timely manner.

This item was deferred to a future meeting.