Minutes – CPS Audit and Risk Committee Meeting 16 January 2014

Present

Jeremy Newman (C) - Non-executive Board Director
Alan Jenkins - Non-executive Board Director
Caroline Johnstone - Non-executive Member Richard Szadziewski - Non-executive Member

Guests

Peter Lewis - Chief Executive
Paul Staff - Director of Finance
Dale Simon - Director of Accountability & Inclusion Directorate
Joe Mohan - Head of Internal Audit
Mark Lindley - Operations Directorate
Michael Fuller - Chief Inspector, HMCPSI
Sajid Rafiq - National Audit Office

Secretariat

Rachel Gough - Strategy & Policy Directorate
Veena King - Strategy & Policy Directorate

Item 1: Declaration of Conflicts of Interest

1. No declarations of conflicts of interest were made.

2. The Chair noted the Committee's appreciation and thanks to Joe Mohan, who would be leaving the CPS, for his many years of service as Head of Internal Audit.

Item 2: Minutes of last meeting & actions arising

3. The minutes of the last meeting held on 22 October 2013 were agreed. Progress was noted against the outstanding actions not covered by the main agenda.

Item 3: Highlight Report of CPS Progress against HMCPSI Recommendations

4. Mark Lindley provided an overview of the CPS highlight report.

Item 4: SIRO Report on Serious Cases of Unauthorised Disclosure

5. The Committee noted the report. No issues were raised.

Item 5: Review of Regulatory Policies

6. The Committee agreed that this item could be removed from future agendas. The policies which should be subject to scrutiny had been identified and included separately on the Committee's core work schedule.

Item 6: Internal Audit Plan & Status Report

7. Joe Mohan summarised progress against the 2013-14 Audit Plan.

8. The Committee requested assurance that the transition to a new Head of Internal Audit would not impact upon the delivery of the Audit Plan or completion of end-year processes. This would be dealt with out-of-committee.

Item 7: Assurance Framework Review

9. Joe Mohan presented the draft Assurance Framework and invited the Committee to consider whether this was adequate to assist them in discharging their responsibilities.

Item 8: Review of ARC Effectiveness

10. Richard Szadziewski presented the findings of the Committee's review of effectiveness against the NAO self-assessment checklist.

11. The Committee reviewed the proposed recommendations and actions arising from the review.

Item 9: Complaints Handling

12. Dale Simon attended the meeting to discuss the routes of complaint available to CPS staff.

Item 10: Risk Update

13. Paul Staff outlined the latest position on Area risk reviews.

Item 11: Review of Corporate Risk 4

14. Risk 4: We do not fully engage or influence key stakeholders in a clear and coherent way, leading to failure to influence, reduce inefficiencies or deliver desired change.

15. Peter Lewis provided an overview of factors to consider and invited the Committee to comment on the assessment of risk in this area.

Item 12: AOB

16. The Chair invited comments from the Committee on the briefing paper regarding the definition of Disability Hate Crime.

17. The latest iteration of the Refocusing Programme Risk Register had been provided to the Committee for information.

Secretary
January 2014