Consumer Scotland
Audit and Risk Committee Meeting
11 March 2025
Minute of Meeting
Present:
Nick Martin – Chair
James Walker – Member
Angela Morgan – Member
Lesley Halliday – Member
In attendance:
David Wilson – Chair, Consumer Scotland Board
Sam Ghibaldan – Chief Executive
Sue Bomphray – Director of Operations
Douglas White – Director of Policy and Advocacy
David Eiser – Director of Research and Analysis
Louise Carmichael – Senior Internal Audit Manager, Scottish Government
Glen Bissett – Internal Audit Manager, Scottish Government
Noel Simba Jana – External Audit Partner, Deloitte LLP
Rashid Zaman – Manager, Deloitte LLP
Sally Sandground – Finance, Governance and Corporate Services Manager
Ian Forbes – Finance and Accountancy Adviser
Ifthakhar Eresh – Finance, Governance and Corporate Services Officer (minutes)
Apologies:
None
Agenda Item 1 – Welcome and Declarations of Interest.
1. The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made. The Chair welcomed Noel Simba Jana External Audit Partner, Deloitte LLP to the meeting.
2. There were no declarations of interest noted.
Agenda Item 2.1 – Minutes of Previous Meeting
3. The minutes of the previous meeting on 10 December 2024 were approved by the Committee.
Agenda Item 2.2 – Action Tracker
4. The Action Tracker had one action ongoing and the Director of Operations and Partnerships gave an update on the Oracle reporting functionality still being rolled out. The rest of the actions were all marked as complete.
Agenda Item 3 – Annual Review of Terms of Reference
5. The Director of Operations and Partnerships gave an update on the review of the Terms of Reference for the ARC.
6. No other points were noted, and the Committee approved the Terms of Reference.
Agenda Item 4 – ARC review of effectiveness
7. The Chair thanked everyone who had responded to the self-assessment questionnaire.
8. The Chair referenced the paper which had been included for information on the overview of the key messages and the Committee discussed the points raised by the Chair.
9. The Chair will draft a note for the Board on conclusions and actions arising – some of which will be ARC matters and some of which may more appropriately be discussed at the Board.
Agenda Item 5 – ARC Annual Work Programme
10. The agenda planner for ARC meetings for the upcoming financial year and beyond has been presented. The Committee reviewed the planner and were requested to feedback via email any queries or comments.
Agenda Item 6 – Director of Operations and Partnerships update, Management Accounts 2024-25 and IFRS-16 Approach & Proposed Accounting Policies 2024-25
11. The Director of Operations and Partnerships gave a brief update on the Oracle Fusion implementation, the Medium/Long Term Financial Strategy, the forecast outturn, the reallocation of budget and savings made. The Director of Operations and Partnerships responded to questions on her report.
12. The Director of Operations and Partnerships also updated the committee on the significant capacity issues across the Operations and Partnerships teams with the additional workload associated with grant management, statutory reporting, Oracle and governance.
13. The Finance, Governance and Corporate Services Manager provided an update on the Financial Report 2024-25. Management Accounts compare our accounts against our budget. The report is based on Q3 actuals and takes consideration of January and February 2025 spend and known commitments for the remainder of the financial year.
14. Due to the evolving development of Oracle Reports available to us, the team have not been able to do a full comparison of forecast outturn to prior year, but the Finance, Governance and Corporate Services Manager believes this reporting capability will be available in FY2025-26.
15. The Finance and Accountancy Adviser gave update on Accounting Policies 2024-25, particularly on IFRS-16 and calculation of lease treatment. The Committee noted that there will be no changes from previous year policies apart from the inclusion of IFRS16 in relation to the lease agreement at Thistle House.
Agenda Item 7 – Budget – FY2025-26
16. The Director of Operations and Partnerships gave an update on the Draft Budget for FY2025-26. The proposed budget of £7.36M is in line with our revised ask and allows for inflation and pay increases.
17. The Director of Operations and Partnerships also stated the core funding has been confirmed; it was initially significantly lower than requested but working closely with the Scottish Government and following the agreed escalation process, we have been able to come to a satisfactory outcome. Levy funding will be confirmed over the next couple of months.
18. Funding for the CAS Advocacy Grant has been included in the budget approved by the Parliament. We also have written confirmation of the ADS Consumer Grant moving to Consumer Scotland as part of the Autumn Budget Review process, and the figures have been provisionally included in our budget.
19. The Committee discussed various points on budget and recommended that the Board should approve the budget for FY2025-26.
Agenda Item 8 – Internal Audit – Audit Report, Internal Audit Plan 2025-26 and Updated MoU
20. The Senior Internal Audit Manager highlighted some of the wider directorate updates.
21. The Internal Audit Manager provided an update on the Internal Audit Progress Report on its audit of procurement and financial control was presented with a substantial assurance rating and showing low exposure to potential weakness and negligible materiality of consequent risk.
22. The committee thanked the consumer Scotland team’s efforts that resulted in such a positive report
23. The Internal Audit Manager also presented the Internal Audit Plan for 2025-26 with a focus on Risks. The Committee discussed and approved the Internal Audit Plan 2025-26.
24. The Internal Audit Manager also presented the updated MoU and the committee noted the MoU. There were no comments made and the committee approved the updated MoU.
Agenda Item 9 – External Audit – Draft external Audit plan
25. The External Audit Partner from Deloitte LLP presented the draft External Audit plan. The final plan will be circulated for approval via email in early April. There were no issues raised and the Committee noted the External Audit plan for FY2025-26.
Agenda Item 10 - AOB
26. No other business was raised.
27. The Chair thanked everyone for their participation and expressed his thanks for all the progress that had been made, then closed the meeting.
28. The date of the next meeting is Tuesday 17 June 2025 at 10:00 hrs online via Teams.