The Committee received a report from the Deputy Chief Executive to approve the draft Annual Governance Statement.
The Committee requested clarification over a statement in the report which indicated that the external auditors could now begin their work on the outstanding accounts, which contradicted the report from the External Auditor. The Deputy Chief Executive advised that at the time of writing the statement was correct in its expectations. The External Auditor advised that changes to the statement could be made and that it should take into account events up until the point the accounts would be signed off.
The Committee resolved to approve the draft Annual Governance Statement subject to any further amendments in conjunction with the Chair of Audit Committee and endorse the improvement actions identified in the Statement