Agenda item

To consider a report (copy attached) which provides an update on the Council’s Corporate Risk Register.

11.25a.m-11.55a.m.

In introducing the report (previously circulated) the Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets gave a brief overview of the risk register methodology and the relationship between individual service risk registers and the corporate risk register, including the process for escalating a risk from the service register to the corporate register and the de-escalation process.  He explained that the Corporate Risk Register was revised on a twice yearly basis by Cabinet and the Corporate Executive Team (CET) prior to being presented to scrutiny for observations.  During his introduction the Lead Member highlighted the main changes made to the register as listed in Appendix 1 to the report, explaining the reasons behind the amendments.

Responding to members’ questions the Lead Member and the Strategic Planning Manager advised that:

·         they supported the decision to remove risk DCC032 relating to local government reorganisation as the Welsh Government’s (WG) Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government had made it clear that he would not be looking to change local government geographical boundaries within the foreseeable future, but would rather be looking to councils to work together in specified areas to deliver services on a regional basis.  With the development of regional services new risks associated with them may be identified and appear on the corporate risk register in due course;

·         DCC011 - the need to have contingency and resilience plans in place in the event of disasters, be they natural disasters or otherwise, had come to the forefront in recent weeks in the wake of terrorist attacks in the UK and the Grenfell Towers fire.  The Council did have such plans and these would be tested in the near future in the form of a resilience and business continuity exercise.  The proposed exercise would test the resilience of all aspects of the Council’s infrastructure to deal with a disaster situation and the subsequent recovery;

·         as part of the Council’s contingency planning work officers were currently undertaking a checking exercise to ensure that the Council was fully aware of all individuals residing in its housing stock properties;

·         the Council’s IT Service had successfully responded to the recent cyber-attack on the National Health Service’s (NHS) computer system;

·         all CET members and a number of Senior Leadership Team (SLT) members were trained to ‘gold command’ emergency planning level standard, with middle managers having attained ‘silver command’ competencies;

·         North Wales had a joint regional Emergency Planning Service to respond to sudden disasters.  All local authorities, emergency services and the health service worked closely with this regional service;

·         In view of the recent announcement that the Council’s Corporate Director:  Economy and Public Realm would be leaving the authority in the near future the Council’s capacity and skills as outlined in risk DCC030 would be tested during the forthcoming months; and

·         Building resilient communities to mitigate the risks identified in relation to DCC033, ‘the risk that the cost of care will outstrip the Council’s resource’, would take time.  In the meantime mitigating actions, including supporting independence and developing extra-care housing were being delivered.  Due to the time required to deliver objectives relating to this the risk score associated with it had not been downgraded.

Members stressed the importance of ensuring that business continuity and resilience information was easily accessible to all staff at all times, and that staff members were regularly advised on where the information could be found, particularly in the event of an emergency.

In response to points raised during the discussion the Lead Member and officers undertook to:

·         ensure that the next review report contained coloured charts for all ‘corporate risks’ as no illustration had been included for at least one ‘risk’ (DCC016) in the current version; and

·         seek assurances from the North Wales Emergency Planning Service that in addition to having plans in place for local authorities, emergency services and voluntary services within the North Wales region to work together in emergency situations, that they also had plans in place to call on assistance from other regions in Wales, the North West and West Midlands areas of England, if required.

At the conclusion of the discussion the Committee:

Resolved: - subject to the above observations and the provision of the requested information, to note the deletions, additions and amendments to the Corporate Risk Register.