Issue - meetings

          The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director, Enterprise, Community and Strategy, which sought approval of the draft Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for 2016/17.

The Board was advised that under the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015, the Council must produce an AGS which must be approved by resolution of a Committee or Members of the authority as a whole. The AGS must also be approved in advance of the Council approving the statement of accounts.

The Council’s Constitution delegated the responsibility to review and approve the AGS to the Business Efficiency Board. Once approved, the AGS would be signed by the Leader and Chief Executive and published on the Council’s website.

The Board was further advised that the AGS was intended to identify any areas where the Council’s governance arrangements needed to be developed and to set out any action that was proposed to strengthen those arrangements.

The draft AGS for 2016/17 was attached to the report. It was noted that the document identified two significant governance challenges for the Council; Funding Pressures and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, as detailed in the report.

RESOLVED: That, subject to the inclusion of an additional challenge relating to the need to maintain a robust IT governance framework,

1)    the draft Annual Governance Statement be confirmed that it accurately reflects the Council’s governance arrangements and governance challenges; and

2)    the draft Annual Governance Statement be approved.