Agenda item
CORPORATE RISK REGISTER
To consider a report (copy attached) which provides an update on the Council’s Corporate Risk Register.
11.25a.m-11.55a.m.
Minutes:
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.
Supporting documents:
- Corporate Risk Register Report 130717, item 6. PDF 146 KB
- Corporate Risk Register Report 130717 - App 1, item 6. PDF 35 KB
- Corporate Risk Register Report 130717 - App 2, item 6. PDF 4 MB