Agenda item

The Committee received a report of the Corporate Director of Resources that supported the Council’s Risk Management Strategy, highlighted the strategic risks facing the Council and provided an insight into the work carried out by the Corporate Risk Management Group between October and December 2023 (for copy see file of minutes).

P Darby informed the committee that two risks had been updated related to the Environmental Health team due to recruitment difficulties and capital budget issues.  There were issues in recruiting Environmental Health Officers to inspect food places.  There were increased risks with the ICB budget within health and social care with the shortfall and turbulence in the system.  The A690 land slip and been down graded as there had been no further movement.  There were technical designs in place to commence the work imminently.

Councillor B Kellett passed the A690 everyday and queried if work had commenced as he was concerned that trees had been removed and it was the tree roots that kept the land together.

P Darby confirmed that engineers had determined the technical solutions for the water table underneath the road and that the removal of the trees was part of the planned works. 

P Darby updated the committee that there were 5 key risks regarding child safeguarding, government funding, climate change, national shortage of education psychologists and the national shortage of places for looked after children.

Mr I Rudd acknowledged that there were formidable risks identified and queried if climate change was a long term risk and whether the country and the council was on target to achieve its net zero ambitions.

P Darby suggested that an officer from the low carbon team could be asked to come to give a presentation on the Councils Climate Emergency Response Plan, what targets on climate change were and what was being done within the council to meet this. He added that the risks associated with climate change included reputational risks if the council was unable to deliver on its aspirations.   He acknowledged that achieving the councils and the country’s ambitions were expensive and that the council did not have resources to make changes as in some cases it would not be feasible without significant technological or legislative change or national investment.  The council had started by electrifying some of the fleet which worked well for small vans but was not currently viable for large vehicles such as refuse vehicles.

The Committee agreed that it would be useful to have a presentation from the councils Low Carbon Team.

Mr C Robinson asked about the data breach that had been highlighted and whether it had been on a large or small scale.

P Darby confirmed that was the latter and was based on human error where the wrong envelope containing sensitive information had been sent out to the wrong address.  This had been flagged and greater awareness for care and attention had been highlighted with all council employees.

Resolved:

That the report be noted.