Issue - meetings

The committee is requested to consider this briefing from Ernst & Young LLP.

The committee considered the report attached to the agenda.

Mr Jones presented the report, advising that this briefing was for the committee’s information.

The committee made the following comments and received answers to questions as follows:

·       Had an increase in employee wages above 1% been included in the budget? 2% had been included in the budget and 2% per year added to the five year Financial Strategy.

·       Would parking income be within the scope of IFRS 15? The initial view was that we wouldn’t be caught by this but it was being checked.

·       Would the authority ever be affected by a collapse such as Carillion plc? The council does not outsource any service except for the leisure contract therefore there is no arrangement that would put us in that situation.

·       Was there a view that, as it affected a number of local authorities, the IFRS9 regulations might be overridden? The Government had consulted on the IFRS9 issue. We had undertaken our own lobbying and had gone through official channels to put our view to them. £0.5m had been provided in our budget  to cover this issue so even if there was no override we were still in a good position. Mr Catlow was able to advise on the latest information from MHCLG - they were ‘minded’ to approve an override however they might limit its scope to investment in the local authority property fund with an override in place by 2018-19.

The committee noted the audit committee briefing.