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Report to:
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Audit Committee |
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Date:
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28 March 2025 |
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By:
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Chief Operating Officer |
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Title of report:
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2025/26 Internal Audit Strategy and Annual Audit Plan |
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Purpose of report:
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To present the Council’s 2025/26 Internal Audit Strategy and Annual Audit Plan |
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RECOMMENDATIONS Audit Committee is recommended to:1) review and endorse the Council’s 2025/26 Internal Audit Strategy and Annual Audit Plan; and 2) review and endorse the Internal Audit Charter.
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1. Background
1.2 The Internal Audit Strategy details the priorities for delivering an effective internal audit and counter fraud service, together with details of the quality assurance and performance management arrangements for the coming year.
1.3 The Internal Audit Plan for 2025/26 is a risk-based programme of work, as set out at Appendix A. The plan has been developed in consultation with departments and internal audit are currently in the process of confirming the audits that will be undertaken during the year with them. A workshop was also held with members of the Audit Committee on 23 January 2025 and comments made have been fed into the planning process.
1.4 The plan focusses primarily on strategic risks and issues, key priority projects and programmes, priority service reviews, core assurance areas (such as key financial systems) and grant claims, with the remainder of the direct audit days earmarked as emerging risks/contingency. In terms of key financial systems, these are subject to a cyclical programme of audits. In 2025/26, this work is expected to be more significant given the planned go-live of the Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution in April 2025 and the extent to which so many key financial processes are dependent on this system.
1.5 The plan remains as flexible as possible in accordance with professional standards. One driver for this is the changing nature of the local government landscape, especially with new legislation associated with Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) and Devolution. Given the likelihood of the plan needing to flex within the year ahead, internal audit have identified, at the end of Appendix A, additional audit assignments that may, on a risk-prioritised basis, be drawn into the internal audit workload if planned audits are postponed or cancelled.
2. Supporting Information
2.1 The Accounts and Audit Regulations contain the expectation that Internal Audit will take into account public sector internal audit standards or guidance. It is therefore important to note that, with effect from 1 April 2025, the current Public Sector Internal Audit Standards (PSIAS) will be replaced by new Global Auditing Standards (GIAS). As explained in the Strategy, although the introduction of these new Standards is likely to require some updating of internal documentation, such as the Internal Audit Charter, the impact on the approach to internal audit activities and methodologies is not considered to be significant. Work is currently underway to complete a self-assessment against the new GIAS, details of which will be reported to Corporate Management Team (CMT) and Audit Committee during 2025/26, along with actions arising from it.
2.2 The Internal Audit Charter sets out the scope and responsibility of internal audit. It is attached to this report as Appendix B.
3. Conclusions and Reasons for Recommendation
ROS PARKER
Chief Operating Officer
Contact Officers: Russell Banks, Orbis Chief Internal Auditor – Tel No. 07824 362739
Nigel Chilcott, Audit Manager - Tel No. 07557 541803