Risk Assessment, Risk Management & Internal Control Policy

Risk Assessment, Risk Management & Internal Control Policy

Financial Risk Assessment

The Parish Council has looked at the financial risks that it must deal with and resolved to adopt the following policy.

1. Handling Cash

The Parish Council does not handle cash on a daily basis.  The only regular income is precept, bank interest and annual VAT return.  All of these are paid directly into the Parish Council’s bank account.  Cash received from allotment tenancies is recorded, receipted and paid into the bank at the earliest opportunity and within 5 working days.

The Parish Council has insurance to a maximum of £350 for cash in transit.

2. Employers liability

The Parish Council employs 1 employee: Clerk

Its insurance policy with provides employers liability cover up to £5 million.

3. Public liability

The Parish Council has public liability cover to £10 million under its policy with BHIB. The selection of insurer is reviewed annually based on comparable and sufficient cover.

4. Fidelity guarantee

The Parish Council has fidelity guarantee cover to £100,000 see also point 3.

5. Contracts and tendering

The Parish Council has financial regulations in place for contracts of seeking 3 quotes which is a mandatory default position. (See standing orders and financial regulations).

6. Banking arrangements

There are 5 signatories on the banking mandate (5 Councillors and the Clerk).  Two Councillor signatures are required by the bank and in law.  Cheques are only signed at meetings of the Parish Council. The Clerk also has access to online banking.  She is the only person registered to use this service and it can only be used to transfer money between accounts and check balances.

The Parish Council uses the BACS system to make payments, the measures in place to minimise risks in this process are a password to log on to the banking system and then a fob generated pass code, the fob itself is password protected. The banking systems allows 3 attempts after which the log on is disabled.

7. Bank reconciliation

The Parish Council receives a monthly budget against spend statement, including bank balances, and there are quarterly independent checks of bank statements to reconcile with balances reported.

8. Cash book records

The Parish Council uses Rialtas software to manage its financial records including the cashbook.

9. Internal audit

The Parish Council has appointed an independent internal auditor.  An audit is carried out at year end

10. Internal control

The Parish Council has established a system of internal control where the Clerk reports in writing prior to each meeting and verbally at the meeting. All payments are supported by an invoice or summary of the reasons for a payment eg to accompany petty cash receipts.  All invoices and payment requests are initialled by the Chairman of the meeting at which authority to make payment is given. An Internal Control Checklist is completed and reviewed quarterly between the Clerk, Chairman and one other Parish Councillor.

11. PAYE and Workplace Pensions Compliance

The council receives evidence of PAYE payments to HMRC via print outs of the P32 forms and compliance with its duties in respect of automatic enrollment and workplace pensions (i.e. declaration of compliance and list of monthly pension payments

Financial Risk Assessment adopted on 19^th December 2024

Chairman ……………………………… Responsible Financial Officer …………………………….

 CASSINGTON PARISH COUNCIL – RISK ASSESSMENT/MANAGEMENT DOCUMENT 2024/25

 Risk assessment is a systematic general examination of the activities of the Parish Council to enable potential risks to be identified.

• The Parish Council, based on the recorded assessment, will take all practical and necessary steps to reduce or eliminate the risks identified.
• This document has been produced to enable Cassington Parish Council to assess the risks inherent to its activities and satisfy itself that it has taken all reasonable steps to minimise them.