Report by the Head of Governance (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive regarding the Draft Annual Governance Statement 2022/23 (circulated previously).

The Head of Governance advised the Committee:

·         The Annual Governance Statement sets out the processes and procedures in place to enable the Council to carry out its functions effectively, based on the core principles of the governance framework.

·         Key elements of the framework included work of the Strategy and Resources Committee and Full Council in setting budgets, strategies and corporate objectives.

·         The review of the Council’s governance arrangements had been supported by the internal auditor as the Devon Audit Partnership had carried out 16 audits during the year. Their Annual audit opinion was of ‘reasonable assurance’ that there was generally sound system of governance, risk management and control in place.

·         During 22/23 there had been several improvements to the governance arrangements which included:

o   The production of an Annual Equality Report & Communication Strategy

o   Introduction of a new suite of key performance indicators and improvement of the reporting of progress towards the corporate plan

o   Rationalising the number of risks on the corporate risk register

·         There were some improvements that still required including:

o   Finalising of the Community Engagement Strategy

o   Updating the Procurement Strategy

o   Improving Information Governance (Information security & management)

In response to a question from the Committee, the Head of Customer Focus confirmed that there had been less complaints during the pandemic, with less being referred to the ombudsman. Only 2 of the 9 complaints passed to the ombudsman had been upheld.

RECOMMEND that the Draft Annual Governance Statement 2022/23 be approved and proceed to Council for consideration.