What does the Audit and Standards Committee do?

The Audit and Standards Committee combines responsibility for overseeing the effective auditing of all the Council's processes with a separate role in ensuring the ethical propriety and good conduct of individual Councillors.

This is the only Committee of the Council to which Independent Members must be appointed. The Committee has 3 Independent Members, one of whom must act as Chairman. Independent Members provide objective scrutiny of process and behaviour, not being elected councillors or employed officers of this or any other authority.

|The Terms of Reference of the Committee are set out in the Councils Constitution. The audit function embraces both external and internal processes (the external scrutiny brought by the Audit Commission and the internal control of processes administered by an Internal Audit team). The Committee approves an annual Work Programme and receives regular reports on the progress of audit work and assessments.

Complaints about Councillor behaviour (specifically allegations that a Councillor has breached the |Member Code of Conduct) are received by the Monitoring Officer. Complaints are handled in accordance with procedures and protocols approved by the Committee. This includes reporting and investigation through a network of Sub-Committees established by the Committee (Assessment, Review and Hearings Sub-Committees).

|Find out when the meetings are held