Council considered a report by the Head of Governance (circulated previously) regarding the Annual Governance Statement 2022/23.

The Head of Governance advised the following:

·       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 2022/23 there had been several improvements to the governance arrangements which included:

o   The production of an Annual Equality Report and 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 and management)

·       The Governance Committee at its meeting on 13 June 2023 had recommended that the draft Annual Governance Statement 2022/23 be approved.

It was moved by Councillor Bushell and seconded by Councillor Roome that the recommendation be adopted.

RESOLVED that the Annual Governance Statement for 2022/23 (as detailed in Appendix A) be approved.