Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to provide members of the Audit Committee with an update on risk management across the Council.

This item includes appendices that contain exempt information. Discussion of the appendices will require passing the proposed resolution at the end of the agenda to exclude members of the public and press.

David Hughes (Director of Audit, Fraud, Risk and Insurance) introduced the report which provided an update on risk management across the Council.  Jules Binney (Risk and Assurance Manager) briefed members on changes made to the Corporate Risk Register since November 2023.  

Councillor Florian Chevoppe-Verdier referred to Risk No. 8 ((Failure to identify and address internal and external fraud).  While appreciating a lot of progress had been made in this respect, he was concerned that fraud had become the number one crime in the country.  It was important for the local authority to continue sharing fraud data with the London Fraud Hub which matched a number of data sets across councils in London to highlight potential fraud cases for investigation.  David Hughes gave a detailed account on the development of the National Fraud Initiative back in 2019 and the uptake barrier due to predative cost. Now about 20 London boroughs had signed up at reasonable price. Data sets, including those from agency members, were shared and matched every month to detect tenancy fraud, parking fraud or moonlighting etc.  Consideration was given to putting more data sets to enable frontline staff to check people’s eligibility for services to prevent fraud access to the same service in different councils.

In response to Councillor Chevoppe-Verdier’s question whether data from private sector could also be shared and matched, David Hughes said there was a business case for the National Fraud Initiative to consider particular areas of concern such as NHS.  By putting the relevant data together, the Council could then take actions proactively and reactively. David added that H&F’s BI team was establishing an internal fraud hub such that investigation underway would be made known to other teams serving the same client. It could also help in debt recovery.

Councillor Rowan Ree (Cabinet Member for Finance and Reform) appreciated the sharing of extra data across the borough which shall give the Council chances to look at all sort of services and track down fraud cases.  He shared with the Committee that a former tenant was recently found guilty of committing tenancy fraud and sentenced to 16-month suspended imprisonment. 

Councillor Ashok Patel referred to Risk 12 (Unable to retain talented people in key posts at LBHF) and sought explanation of “‘deep dive’ to analyse churn more closely”.  In response, David Hughes remarked that there were particular skill shortages across London councils and audit specialist was a case in point.  Social care, environmental health and information technology were other areas experiencing skill shortage.  People from permanent employment were diverted to work for agencies which offered higher pay rates.  The Council, apart from providing apprentice training for skills in demand, was also looking at how to make the offers as attractive as possible for these areas.

The Chair noted that some risks had reduced its scores and a risk had been removed from the list.  This reflected the effectiveness of Corporate Risk Register as a tool used by various departments to manage and mitigate the risks until they were successfully removed.

Exclusion of the public and press

The Committee resolved, under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public and press be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the exempt presentation, on the grounds that they contained the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the said Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption currently outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

The Committee held further discussions in private session.

RESOLVED

That the Committee noted the report including the exempt presentation.