Councillor Alan Moir (East Dunbartonshire Council); Councillor David Wilson (Inverclyde Council); Councillor Harry Curran (North Lanarkshire Council); Councillor Tom Begg (Renfrewshire Council); and Councillor Lawrence O’Neill (West Dunbartonshire Council).

Councillor O’Neill, Convener, presided.

S Tait, Strategic Development Plan Manager and D McDonald, Assistant Strategic Development Plan Manager (both Strategic Development Plan Core Team); S Jamieson, Head of Regeneration and Planning (Inverclyde Council); L Bowden, Business Manager (Strategic Planning) (North Lanarkshire Council); A McMahon, Chief Auditor, K Festorazzi, Senior Accountant and E Currie, Senior Committee Services Officer (all Renfrewshire Council); and M Ferris, Senior Manager (Audit Scotland).

Councillor Jim Clocherty (Inverclyde Council); Councillor Agnes Magowan (North Lanarkshire Council); and Councillor Alistair Fulton (South Lanarkshire Council).

There were no declarations of interest intimated prior to the commencement of the meeting.

There was submitted the Minute of meeting of this Joint Committee held on 11 May 2020.

The Strategic Development Plan Manager advised that the Glasgow City Regional Cabinet had endorsed the indicative Regional Spatial Strategy on 2 June 2020 and that the strategy document would be considered at the meeting of the Glasgow City Regional Partnership scheduled to be held on 18 June 2020.  

Further that correspondence had been received from the Chief Planner, Scottish Government, advising that NPF4 would be laid before Parliament in September 2021 and that an interim statement would be made in the Autumn.

DECIDED: 

(a) That the Minute be approved; and

(b) That the updates in relation to the indicative Regional Spatial Strategy and NPF4 be noted.

There was submitted a joint report by the Treasurer and the Strategic Development Plan Manager relative to the unaudited annual accounts for the Joint Committee 2019/20, a copy of which were appended to the report. 

The report intimated that the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2020 would be submitted to Audit Scotland in advance of the statutory deadline of 30 June 2020. The accounts showed that the Joint Committee had ended the 2019/20 financial year with a deficit of £36,800, compared to a budgeted deficit of £15,800, resulting in an overspend of £21,000.  The Management Commentary within the accounts provided an overview of the Committee’s financial performance during 2019/20 together with the outlook for the future.

The Local Authority Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2014 required that the Joint Committee prepare and publish a set of accounts, including an Annual Governance Statement, by 30 June each year. The unaudited accounts were then required to be formally considered by the Joint Committee no later than 31 August and the Annual Governance Statement should be formally approved at this time. 

In accordance with the Local Authority Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2014, the unaudited annual accounts would be signed only by the Treasurer as proper officer.  The accounts would then be subject to external audit by the Joint Committee’s appointed auditor, Audit Scotland, by 30 September. The 2019/20 audited annual accounts were scheduled to be presented to the Joint Committee on 14 September 2020 for approval and signing by the Chair, the Lead Officer and the Treasurer, in accordance with the regulations.

DECIDED: 

(a) That the annual accounts for the year ended 31 March 2020 be noted and that the accounts be further presented to the Joint Committee on completion of the audit; 

(b) That the Annual Governance Statement be approved; and

(c) That the final budget monitoring position for 2019/20 be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Auditor, Renfrewshire Council, relative to the Internal Audit Annual Report on the Glasgow and the Clyde Valley Strategic Development Planning Authority Joint Committee 2019/20.

The report intimated that the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards required that the Chief Auditor prepare an annual report on the internal audit activity’s purpose, authority and responsibility as well as performance relative to its plan. The report must also provide an annual audit opinion on the overall adequacy and effectiveness of the internal control environment of the audited body. 

 

The annual report for the Joint Committee was appended to the report and outlined the role of internal audit, the performance of the internal audit team and the main findings from the internal audit work undertaken in 2019/20 and contained an audit assurance statement.

 

DECIDED: That the Internal Audit Annual Report for 2019/20 be noted.

There was submitted a joint report by the Treasurer and the Strategic Development Plan Manager detailing the list of expenses incurred through corporate procurement card payment by type and employee for the period 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020. 

DECIDED: That the report be noted.

DECIDED: That it be noted that the next meeting of the Joint Committee would be held at 11.15 am on 14 September 2020.