Agenda item

The Committee had before it a report by the Executive Director of Corporate Services which presented the Corporate Risk Register, Cluster Assurance Maps and Inspections Planner to provide assurance on the Council’s overall system of risk management.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee -

(a)      note the Corporate Risk Register set out in Appendix A and the summary of movements in risk scores set out in table at section 3.8;

(b)      note the Cluster Assurance Maps provided at Appendix B; and

(c)      note the Inspections Planner provided at Appendix C;

In response to a question seeking clarification on how the current impact of the risk was assessed, the Interim Chief Officer – Governance advised that the current risk score was an assessment of how effective the mitigations were against the initial risk score, resulting in an initial, current and target risk score for each risk.

In response to examples where risk scores looked to have been scored negatively, the Interim Chief Officer – Governance advised that the most significant risks were included in the Corporate Risk Register.  The Chief Officer – Finance advised that in relation to the Financial Sustainability Risk, the risk was based on factors outwith the Council’s control and that various mitigations were in place as outlined in the Assurance Map.

In response to a question relating to whether there was another way in which information could be presented for each of the risks, the Interim Chief Officer – Governance advised that the Council used a fairly dynamic approach to risk management which presented live risk registers that were available 24 hours per day and updated daily via Power Bi enabling risks to be monitored in real time with additional mitigations added where required.  She further advised that she would look at the style of the graphical information to identify potential improvements on how the information is displayed for future reports.

In response to a question relating to the Cyber Security Risks and whether emerging technologies such as Generative AI was having an impact on the external risk to the Council, the Chief Officer – Digital and Technology advised that the level of threats were not new and that tracking and mitigation was in place across the network to mange the threats. 

In response to a question relating to the Financial Sustainability Risk and the creation of a Fraud Group, the Chief Officer – Finance advised that the group were formed to enable detailed collation of information relating to potential fraud activity with the ability to escalate to the Board if required.  He advised that officers already working on counter fraud activities were involved with the group providing an enhanced control environment to remain sighted on potential fraudulent activity.

In response to a question relating to £1m threshold quoted for a serious risk rating and whether this was set too low, the Chief Officer – Finance advised that he would look at the materiality figures for the Corporate and the Cluster Risk Registers.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations in the report.