New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership
Audit and Risk Committee
Tuesday 28th June 2022
9.30am to 11.30am
Via Teams Meeting
Agenda
Committee Members
Nick Banks (Chair) Scrutton Bland
Corrienne Peasgood City College Norwich
Stuart Dark King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Council
Lou Aynsley Suffolk County Council – s151 Officer
In Attendance
Rosanne Wijnberg New Anglia LEP
Melanie Richardson New Anglia LEP
Helen Wilton New Anglia LEP
Aaron Widdows Price Bailey
Abigail Thomas Price Bailey
No. Item
1. Welcome & Introductions
2. Apologies
3. Declarations of Interest
4. Minutes from last meeting
Items for discussion
5.
Review Draft Annual Financial Statements incl. appendices
- confidential
(LEP team review to be completed) For Recommendation
6. Corporate Risk - Risk Register - confidential Update
7. Local Assurance Framework Update
8. Meeting Schedule and Dates Discussion
9. Any Other Business
Date of next meetings: xx February 2023
1
1
Confidential
New Anglia Audit and Risk Committee Minutes (Unconfirmed)
9th February 2022
Present:
Nick Banks (NB) Independent Chair
Corrienne Peasgood (CP) Norwich City College
Holly Field (HF) Suffolk County Council (Deputising for Accountable Body
S151 Officer)
In Attendance:
Rosanne Wijnberg (RW) New Anglia LEP
Melanie Richardson (MR) New Anglia LEP
Helen Wilton (HW) New Anglia LEP
Lisa Roll (LR) New Anglia LEP
Aaron Widdows (AW) Price Bailey – For item 5
Actions from the Meeting
ACTION: RW and NB to negotiate the fees
ACTION: Details of the Related Parties as contained in the audit report to be confirmed as accurate
ACTION: RW to consider the A&R Membership
ACTION: The monthly LEP review paper to be sent to NB – HW
ACTION: The next meeting to be arrange for June 2022 - HW
1 Welcome and Introductions
Nick Banks (NB) welcomed everyone to the meeting.
2 Apologies
Apologies were received from Stuart Dark
3 Declarations of Interest
Full declarations of interest can be found at https://newanglia.co.uk/our-board/
None
4 Minutes from last meeting
The minutes were reviewed and agreed.
5 Review of Audit Planning Report – presented by Price Bailey - Confidential
2
2
The Committee agreed
To adopt the approach to the audit as presented
6 Annual review and approval of Terms of Reference, Scheme of Delegation and
Accountable Body Agreement
MR presented the three documents for annual review and highlighted the changes.
MR noted the Scheme of Delegation included confirmation that some programmes were ending and
so would need adapting.
Accountable Body Agreement – It was agreed that the date would be changed to March 2023.
CP asked if an additional board member should be added given the ongoing changes at the LEP
ACTION: RW to consider the A&R Membership
3
3
The Committee agreed
To approve the Terms of Reference, Scheme of Delegation and Accountable Body Agreement with
the amended date
7 Risk Register
RW presented the updated risk register and highlighted key items:
Core Funding – Receipt of funding was delayed although all core funding for 21/22 has now been
received. Core funding is unknown for 22/23, a budget has been put together on the basis of a number
of assumptions.
Programmes - Funding for the Growth Hub has been agreed to June 2023. The loss of top slice and
infrastructure funding will have an impact on the overall lEP financial position.
Funding – All issues around spend are being addressed and have been communicated to Government
Misuse of grants – Grants are only claimed on evidence of spend. As the end date of March and the
deadline for spend approaches some grants may not have been claimed in time therefore a process of
clawback is being carried out for a few cases.
NB asked if any provisions would be required as to the use of funds at year end.
RW said that some may be clawed back and may be required to be returned to Government as an
underspend.
NB noted that Risk 2 had moved into red and requested that he is kept informed of changes given the
impact
ACTION: Monthly LEP review paper to be sent to NB - HW
7 Local Assurance Framework
MR presented the LAF paper noting that there were minor issues with links on the website but no
serious issues
RW confirmed that, given the LEP review, the government had permitted the use of LAF exemptions.
The LEP Board is currently short one private sector membe
r
.
8 Next Meeting
RW confirmed that a meeting will be required in June.
HW to arrange a date when further information on dates is available.
9 Any Other Business
None
4
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New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership
Audit and Risk Committee
Tuesday 28th June 2022
Agenda Item 7
New Anglia LEP Governance – Local Assurance Framework monitoring
Author: Melanie Richardson
Summary
The LEP’s Assurance Framework outlines the way we work. This paper presents the results of
our quarterly monitoring of compliance with mandatory requirements and best practice
guidelines.
Recommendation
The Audit and Risk Committee is asked to note the results of monitoring our compliance with
New Anglia LEP’s 2022 Local Assurance Framework.
Background
The National Local Growth Assurance Framework explains how LEPs should appraise, monitor
and evaluate schemes to achieve value for money. It provides Government, stakeholders and
the public with the necessary assurances that LEPs have the policies and processes in place to
ensure the robust stewardship of public funds. It contains mandatory governance, accountability
and transparency requirements and non-mandatory best practice.
New Anglia LEP’s 2022 Local Assurance Framework follows the mandatory requirements and
additional best practice guidance set out in the Government’s National Local Growth Assurance
Framework, which seeks to provide a common framework of understanding of the assurance
required for local growth funding. The 2022 Local Assurance Framework can be viewed under
‘About the LEP Board’here.
New Anglia LEP’s 2022 Local Assurance Framework was approved by the LEP Board in March
2022.
88
2
Key issues
Monitoring Compliance
The National Local Growth Assurance Framework Annex E checklist provides the basis for our
compliance monitoring arrangements. A member of the leadership team has been assigned to
each of the areas identified in the checklist and they take accountability for monitoring compliance
for their area, with the Finance and Governance Manager undertaking spot checks as required.
Compliance against the checklist is reviewed on a quarterly basis and reported to Audit and Risk
Committee twice per year. Annex A attached sets out the results of our March and June quarterly
reviews.
Overall, we are compliant with the mandatory requirements of the Assurance Framework
checklist. Previous issues regarding website links have significantly improved with virtually all
links clicked working correctly.
No compliance issues or actions have been raised as part of our Annual Performance Review.
Due to the impact of Covid-19 Ministers agreed certain exemptions and extensions to the
conditions of the National Local Growth Assurance Framework. The LEP continues to make use
of two exemptions relating to board membership due to one board member stepping down:
Board member recruitment
Private sector board composition
With the conclusion of the LEP review consideration is now being given to board recruitment.
The LEP Chair and Chief Executive and the s151 Officer also provide an annual Governance
Assurance Statement as part of the Annual Performance Review confirming that the LEP is
compliant with its Assurance Framework. We are required to publish our Governance Assurance
Statement on our website. This has recently been updated and can viewed here.
Recommendation
The Audit and Risk Committee is asked to note the results of monitoring our compliance with
New Anglia LEP’s 2022 Local Assurance Framework.
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AnnexA
QuarterlyReviewoftheLocalAssuranceFramework(LAF)
LAFrequirementnotmet
Minorupdatesrequired
LAFrequirementmet
LocalAssuranceFramework
requirement
AnnexE
Checklist
ref
Mar22
review
June22
review Complianceissue
AlignmentwiththeAccountingOfficerSystem
Statement
1‐5 PublicBoarddecisionlog–onlyto11/2/22soneeded
updating.
CorporatestructureforLEPs 14
LocalAssuranceFramework&website 15‐23 StandardsofConductpolicy–June2021infooterand
GovernanceandDecisionmakingwebsitepage,April2020on
OurBoardwebsitepage.
Websites 24
LocalEngagement 25‐26
AppointmentProcessforBoardMembersandChairs 27‐28
DiversityStatements 29
BoardrenumerationandLEPOfficersalaries 30
CodeofConduct 31
ConflictsofInterest 32 Registerofinterestsrequireasixmonthlyupdate(LEP).
Despitebeingchasedasmallnumberofdeclarationswere
outstanding.LAFrequirementisforannualupdate.
ComplaintsforThirdPartiesandthePublic 35‐37
WhistleblowingPolicy 38
Publicationofmeetingandagendaitems 39 Neededtoaddminutesfor:
AuditandRiskCommittee–11thFebruary22
SkillsAdvisoryPanel–21stJanuary22
Agri‐FoodIndustryCouncil–14thDecember21
CleanGrowthTaskforce–5thJanuary22
90
AnnexA
IAC–25thMay22
Handlingconfidentialandexemptinformation 40
ManagementofContracts 41
GovernmentBranding 42
Accountabilityanddecisionmaking 43‐54
TheLEPBoard 55‐57
ChairandDeputyChair 58‐60
LEPStaffandIndependentSecretariat 61
LEPNetwork:cooperation,collaborationand
partnershipwithotherLEPs
62‐63
TheAccountableBodyandSection151Officer 64‐65
Section151OfficerRole 66
DecisionsrelatingtoLEPsawardingpublicfunds 67‐80 TermsofReferenceinneedofreview:
InvestmentAppraisalCommitteeSept2019
ManagementCommitteeFeb2018
ScrutinyandAuditarrangements 81
Websiterequirements
91
