Agenda and minutes
Venue: Tŷ Hywel
Contact: Clerk: Kathryn Hughes Deputy Clerk: Ryan Bishop
No. | Item |
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Introductions, apologies and declaration of interests Minutes: 1.1
Two apologies were received from Suzy Davies
AM, Commissioner and Ann-Marie Harkin, Wales Audit Office (WAO). 1.2
The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting
and asked members to take into account the minutes of the June meeting to
inform a recommendation that the Chief Executive and Clerk signs the accounts. |
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Minutes of 17 June, actions and matters arising Minutes: ACARAC (04-19) Paper 1 - Minutes of 17 June 2019 ACARAC
(04-19) Paper 2 – Summary of actions 2.1
The minutes of the 17 June meeting were
agreed. All actions were completed apart from the action around the Electoral
Commission which was ongoing. 2.2
The Chair responded to a question from
Ann Beynon by advising that a general overview of considerations by the
Remuneration, Engagement and Workforce Advisory Committee (REWAC) had been
scheduled for the October meeting. |
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Annual Report and Statement of Accounts Minutes: ACARAC
(04-19) Paper 3 – Annual Report and Accounts 2018-19 ACARAC (04-19) Paper 3 Annex A – Annual Report and Accounts 2018-19 3.1
The Chair and Manon
Antoniazzi invited comments from Committee members on the Annual Report and
Accounts and clarified that it was the Commission’s role to approve the Annual
Report element. 3.2
The Chair reiterated that
he thought the Annual Report and Accounts was accessible and presented a very good account of
Assembly activity and achievements. 3.3
Hugh Widdis highlighted a
wording error in the Annual Report which was corrected. 3.4
The Chair invited Nia
Morgan to comment on the accounts and to provide some context to the adjustment
made to reflect the impact of the recent Supreme Court McCloud judgement. This judgment required a £1million
adjustment to the amount the Assembly Commission recognises in respect of the
Assembly Members’ Pension Scheme liability. 3.5
Nia explained that, apart
from the pension adjustment nothing had changed since the ISA260 had been
presented in June. She also explained the process which had been agreed with
the actuaries and WAO of estimating the budget impact of the pension judgement,
as a full revaluation would cost around £5k and was not deemed to be good value
for money. Gareth Lucey added that the Commission’s approach was a sensible one
and was consistent with estimated adjustments applied by other affected public
sector bodies. The Chair welcomed this approach and the agreement by the
WAO. The Chair thanked Nia for the way
in which the last minute adjustment had been handled. 3.6
Nia Morgan advised that
the underspend remained as expected. She also highlighted that the lessons
learned from this year’s audit would be discussed at a review meeting which had
been scheduled between WAO and the Commission’s Finance team. This would
include discussions about the timing of the audit for next year to facilitate
earlier signing of the accounts. 3.7
Gareth Lucey confirmed
that WAO had not identified any material issues during their audit of the
Commission’s accounts. 3.8
The Chair thanked Nia and
all involved for their contribution to the Annual Report and Accounts and
formally recommended that the Assembly Commission give approval for the Chief
Executive and Clerk, and Accounting Officer sign the Statement of Accounts. |
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WAO update report Minutes: ACARAC
(04-19) Paper 4 – WAO update report 4.1
This report had been covered in item 3; the WAO had nothing further to add. |
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Horizon scanning ·
Oral
item Minutes: 5.1 The Chair invited
officials to provide an overview of significant areas of work and likely
challenges in the coming months to help inform the Committee’s forward work
programme and identify where it could add value. The following areas were
discussed: ·
challenges presented in
terms of preparing for Brexit, dependent on whether there was a deal, no deal,
or extension to the exit plans; ·
on-going work to
introduce Assembly reform, including changes to the name of the Assembly,
electoral processes and the voting age and how this was best communicated; ·
wider, longer term reform
around the size of the Assembly; ·
the change in focus for
the Commission’s communication and engagement strategies; ·
the forthcoming review of
support for Assembly Committees; ·
continued focus on the
Commission’s Official Languages Scheme, the Annual Report for which was due to
be debated in plenary in the coming weeks; ·
preparations for the May
2021 Assembly elections and transitional arrangements; ·
changes in governance
arrangements for programmes and projects with the establishment of a Programme
and Change Office; and ·
continued focus on
cyber-security. 5.2 Dave provided assurance to the Committee around
ongoing communication with the Assembly’s Business Committee, the Chairs’ Forum
and the Welsh Government in terms managing the capacity of Members and
Commission staff. |
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Forward Work Programme Minutes: ACARAC (04-19) Paper 5 – Forward Work Programme 6.1 Whilst
the Committee would be provided with updates on the priority areas outlined in item
5 above as a matter of course, it was agreed that the following items would be
added to the forward work programme for consideration: ·
an update on scenario
planning for Brexit at the October meeting; ·
an update on the testing
of responses to cyber security incidents, as part of the regular update at the
October meeting; ·
evaluation of the new
governance structure and arrangements i.e. Executive Board and Leadership Team;
and ·
feedback on development
of the Commission’s communication and engagement strategies, including
considerations by REWAC. 6.2 The
Committee agreed to consider a joint session with REWAC to discuss how they,
and possibly external experts, could add value to development of the
Commission’s communication and engagement strategies. 6.3 The
Chair asked members to contribute any further changes or additions to the
forward work programme. 6.4 It was
agreed that a presentation at a Committee meeting by the Wales Governance
Centre in the past had been useful to bring an external perspective on the
political situation and the Chair agreed to consider repeating this for a
future meeting. 7.0 Any
other business 7.1 Nia
asked for the views of Committee members on areas that were likely to be raised
during her attendance at a forthcoming Finance Committee evidence session
around the Public (Wales) Audit Act, particularly around the setting of audit
fees. 7.2 The
Committee discussed the setting of audit fees in general across the public
sector and Gareth Lucey outlined the process for setting fees for auditing the
Commission’s accounts. He confirmed that they would continue to look at ways of
reducing the fee further although it was agreed that this was difficult because
of efficiencies that had been introduced. He also confirmed that the internal audits
on Assembly Members expenses as well as other internal audits had helped to
keep the costs down. 7.3 Gareth
Watts added that, whilst the scope for reliance on internal audit was limited,
the joint working protocol between the Commission and the WAO helped to
maximise that reliance and avoid duplication. 7.4 The
Chair thanked Committee members and officials for their attendance and
contributions. 8.0 Private session 8.1 Gareth Lucey attended a
private session with members of the Committee once formal proceedings
concluded. No minutes were taken. Next meeting is scheduled for 21 October 2019. |