Issue - meetings

To receive an update on the COVID-19 Risk Considerations from the Internal Audit Manager.

The Group Head of Corporate Governance introduced the report and explained that all the information was provided in the report and appendices. The Deputy Chief Executive added that the report was very useful, and it was officers’ intention to maintain it as a living document.

The Committee expressed the view that they had found Appendix 3 (Update Report to Audit Committee on the Impact of Covid-19 on the Spelthorne Economy) useful and asked how widely it had been shared. The Deputy Chief Executive advised that the work had been undertaken by the Economic Development team and circulated widely internally and externally. The Group Head of Corporate Governance further advised that the Committee’s agenda was published online for the public to access.

The Chairman expressed concern that Appendix 2 (COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan for Spelthorne) was not dated and there were no measures associated with it for the Committee to determine its success. The Deputy Chief Executive explained that he had already fed back the importance of dating and version control to the report author and that the document was an extract from a wider Recovery Plan which does have a SMART Action Plan.

Members noted the pressure COVID-19 had put on staff and Council services and queried how many had contracted COVID or had been affected by it. The Deputy Chief Executive explained that the Council’s HR team do track the impact on staff and have periodically reported this to the Management Team. He also advised that the vaccination programme included front line staff as a priority and agreed that an update would be provided to Councillors at the next Councillor briefing.

The Chairman highlighted that in the minutes of the previous meeting the Committee requested feedback from the survey undertaken on the impact on major businesses, but the risk report stated a survey was still to be undertaken and asked when it would be completed. The Deputy Chief Executive explained that the Economic Development team were working flat out to process discretionary grant applications and did not have the capacity to run the survey at present, but it would be completed when possible and feedback provided to the Committee.

The Committee agreed to note the updated COVID-19 Risk Management report and appendices.