Issue - meetings

Strategic Risk Register Update

Meeting: 11/03/2019 - Audit and Risk Committee (Item 5)

5 Strategic Risk Register and Strategic Assurance Map pdf icon PDF 240 KB

[To provide an update on the key risks the Council faces and how it can gain assurance that these risks are being mitigated]

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Martyn Sargeant, Head of Public Service Reform was in attendance for this item. He gave a brief overview of the significant activity the Council was engaged in up to senior management level regarding risk 35 - Brexit. 

 

Councillor Philip Bateman MBE referred to the still pending transfer of the Council’s emergency planning function to the West Midlands Fire Service, the state of flux with the proposals for the West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service function to transfer to the Mayor for the West Midlands Combined Authority, and the general uncertainty of Brexit. He said with all this uncertainty he was concerned that the Council did not have in place robust emergency planning arrangements in response to Brexit. The Head of Public Service Reform reported that he did not oversee resilience for the Council. However, his experience over the last few months was that the Council had a team working in resilience that was stable and settled. They were fully on top of the business continuity side, supported by the local and regional networks. The regional lead for Brexit was the Council’s previous Resilience Manager, so the Council had close links the with regional and local activity. The Council’s resilience function was in a good place and was able to cope with the impacts of Brexit.

 

Councillor Philip Bateman MBE asked who would be responsible for emergency planning/resilience when the Council’s Emergency Planning team transferred to the West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service. Hayley Reid, Senior Auditor reported that the plan was for the team to transfer but the responsibility for the function would remain with the Council’s directors.

 

Councillor Obaida Ahmed sought clarification on the allocation of funding the Council had received from government for Brexit. The Head of Public Service Reform reported that the Council had received government funding of £210,000 for Brexit. The West Midlands Council’s and the West Midlands Combined Authority had agreed to allocated 50% of their government funding to create a pot of £1 million to address issues business would have with Brexit.  The Councils and the Combined Authority would do a lot more regionally than they could if they each spent their individual government funding.

 

The Chair observed that risk 8 - Business Continuity had increased to red due to issues around Brexit. He asked if the issue was not resolved soon would the risk remain at red. The Head of Public Service Reform clarified that risk was regularly reviewed and whilst the level of uncertainty remained high it would be difficult to reduce the risk to amber. The Senior Auditor agreed that the risk would remain at red for the medium term.

 

The Chair asked how often the risk rating was monitored. The Senior Auditor said that the Council was reacting to events on a daily basis and the picture would not settle until the national picture became clearer.

 

The Chair asked whether the government funding for Brexit was enough. The Head of Public Service Reform reported that the government had put aside  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5