231124CNPABdPaper7MinutesfromCommitteeMeeting

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ügh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Form­al Board Paper 7 24 Novem­ber 2023 Page 1 of 12

For inform­a­tion Title: Board Com­mit­tee Minutes Pre­pared by: Catri­ona Strang, Clerk to Board Pur­pose This paper presents the draft minutes for the fol­low­ing meet­ings: Per­form­ance com­mit­tee 8 Septem­ber 2023 Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee 22 Septem­ber 2023 Recom­mend­a­tions a) The Board is asked to note the draft minutes of the Per­form­ance and Audit and Risk Committee.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ügh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Form­al Board Paper 7 24 Novem­ber 2023 Page 2 of 12

Draft Minutes of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey In per­son 8 Septem­ber 2023 at 2.30pm

Present Kenny Deans (Con­vener) Doug McAdam Chris Beat­tie Ann Ross

Steve Mickle­wright Sandy Brem­ner Elean­or Mackintosh

In Attend­ance Grant Moir, CEO Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO Colin McCle­an, Head of Land Man­age­ment Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or for Nature and Cli­mate Change James Ade, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies None

Wel­come and introduction

1. The Chair wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Declar­a­tions of interest
2. Doug McAdam noted for trans­par­ency con­nec­tions to items of busi­ness on the agenda: he Chairs a Deer Man­age­ment Group and is a mem­ber of the Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject Board.

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Minutes of Pre­vi­ous Meet­ings & Mat­ters Arising

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing, 9 June 2023 held in per­son, were approved.

2. Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meet­ings: i. i. ii. b) 11 Feb­ru­ary 2022 Para 19ii) — Report relat­ing to Vis­it Scot­land fund­ing to be brought to the Com­mit­tee. c) 9 June 2023 Para 8i) CEO to cir­cu­late out­come of the meet­ing with peat­land deliv­ery part­ners. Closed – CEO gave an update with noth­ing to cir­cu­late as a note. Para 16i) The Dir­ect­or for Nature and Cli­mate Change to feed­back to the fest­iv­al steer­ing group mem­bers com­ments on timing.

3. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO informed the Com­mit­tee that an addi­tion­al £149,000 had been secured for com­munity led cap­it­al pro­jects from Scot­tish Government.

Cairngorms Peat­land Action Pro­gramme (Paper 1)

1. Colin McCle­an, Head of Land Man­age­ment, intro­duced the paper which presents an update on the deliv­ery of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Peat­land ACTION pro­gramme in 2023 – 24.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Mem­bers raised ques­tions around secur­ity for con­tract­ors and the num­ber of con­tract­ors tak­ing on work. Officers informed Mem­bers that the Park Author­ity have multi-year fund­ing in some cases giv­ing con­tract­ors secur­ity and are hop­ing to extend the use of such con­tracts. Con­tract­or num­bers are expand­ing. b) Mem­bers and Officers dis­cussed the pos­sib­il­ity of estates apply­ing for fund­ing and car­ry­ing out peat­land res­tor­a­tion pro­jects them­selves using their own staff and equip­ment. Officers agreed that this is a good mod­el and will help with upscal­ing the num­ber of pro­jects as estates have ves­ted interest. How­ever, there are com­plic­a­tions around sub­sidy con­trol and prov­ing value for money, though both these con­sid­er­a­tions can be man­aged. The caveat for estates is the ini­tial out­lay of buy­ing expens­ive machinery. c) A Mem­ber com­men­ted that the amber risk in the per­form­ance dash­board around staff­ing feels like a sig­ni­fic­ant risk. The Head of Land Man­age­ment responded

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that grow­ing the team would help with scal­ing up, but cur­rently the Park Author­ity are work­ing at full capa­city. The Head of Ser­vice would like to able to pre­cure pro­ject sup­port for the fol­low­ing summer.

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action Point Arising: none.

Her­it­age Hori­zons Update (Oral)

1. Dav­id Clyne, Head of Her­it­age Hori­zons, gave an update on the her­it­age hori­zons application.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: d) Mem­bers ques­tioned what the 13 new roles that were being recruited were and does the scale of the build­ing need recon­sid­er­ing. Officers respon­ded that the Clerks can dis­trib­ute the staff­ing mat­rix and that due to flex­ible work­ing pat­terns the build­ing can accom­mod­ate the increase in staff. e) A mem­ber ques­tioned how intern­al recruit­ment would be man­aged if fund­ing has not yet been secured. The Head of Her­it­age Hori­zons respon­ded that any appoint­ments will be in prin­ciple and sub­ject to fund­ing being secured. If there is not a pos­it­ive out­come around fund­ing then the Park Author­ity will have to man­age the staff who have applied and their expect­a­tions, and the link of roles in ques­tion to the fund­ing bid will be made clear at the out­set. How­ever, it is seen as a pos­it­ive if staff want to stay in the organ­isa­tion and pro­gress with their careers, with the C2030 provid­ing a poten­tial oppor­tun­ity for some staff in main­tain­ing and extend­ing their careers with the Park Authority.

3. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Action Point Arising: none.

Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Terms of Ref­er­ence and Scope (Paper 2)

1. Dav­id Cameon, Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices intro­duced an over­view of the scope of work to date of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee togeth­er with a remind­er of the agreed terms of ref­er­ence of the Com­mit­tee with­in the con­text of the Park Authority’s wider com­mit­tee structure.

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1. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: f) Mem­bers raised that they would like to see papers com­ing to the Com­mit­tee on the Beaver and Wild­cat Releases; the Rap­tor Pro­ject; and on wood­land res­tor­a­tion. Andy Ford, the Dir­ect­or for Nature and Cli­mate Change, respon­ded that these could come to the com­mit­tee under the broad­er title of Cairngorms Nature Action Plan. g) A Mem­ber raised they would like to see a Paper on the Ranger Ser­vice com­ing to the Com­mit­tee. The Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices respon­ded that one off papers can come to the Com­mit­tee and this would fit with that.

2. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

3. Action Point Arising: none.

AOCB

1. The Chair informed the Com­mit­tee that this was Doug McAdams last meet­ing, thank­ing him for his work as Vice Chair.

The meet­ing closed at 2.30pm

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Draft Minutes of the Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey Hybrid 22 Septem­ber 2022 at 1.00pm

Present Fiona McLean (Chair) Gaen­er Rodger Bill Lob­ban Kenny Deans

Peter Cos­grove Paul Gibb

In Attend­ance Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance, and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions Gregory Odour, Maz­ars Eliza­beth Young, Azets Catri­ona Strang, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies Geva Black­ett Elize­b­eth Young, Azets Grant Moir, CEO

Wel­come and introduction

1. Fiona McLean, the Chair, wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing. Apo­lo­gies were noted.

Approv­al of minutes of pre­vi­ous meeting

1. The draft minutes of the meet­ing on the 21 June 2023 were approved with no amend­ments. Decisions were noted.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Form­al Board Paper 7 24 Novem­ber 2023 Ügh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 7 of 12 Action Points Ref Action Detail Who When 29/10/2021 | Bring les­sons learned on LEAD­ER | Dav­id (Para 8i) back as Agenda item to a future Camer­on AR Com­mit­tee. 29/10/2021 | Com­plete a detailed VAT review. (Para 4i) 11/02/22 (Para 18i) Stand­ard­isa­tion of pro­ject man­age­ment pro­ced­ures and ter­min­o­logy. This to be brought back to the ARC to ensure the appro­pri­ate lan­guage was used. Status Review will Open come to meet­ing In Novem­ber 2023 Louise and Com­plete in In next 6 pro­gress Stephanie Pro­ject Man­ager when recruited months. delayed due to HH pro­ject On com­ple­tion of intern­al review of pro­cess In Hand Novem­ber Com­mit­tee Meet­ing Open 21/06/23 To review times­cales for fur­ther Louise 24 (Para 11) update on actions against Allen out­stand­ing audit recom­mend­a­tions with Azets and bring to next com­mit­tee to con­firm 21/06/23 To pro­duce Dav­id (Para 20) timeline for sched­uled board time Camer­on to devel­op the stra­tegic risk register along­side the new Cor­por­ate Plan Closed: 24 Nov board ses­sion Mat­ters arising not covered in agenda

1. Dav­id Camer­on, the Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO, to bring les­sons learned on LEAD­ER back as Agenda item to the next Com­mit­tee meeting.

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. There were no interests declared.

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Vice Chair nomination

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO, intro­duced the item, invit­ing nom­in­a­tions for Vice Chair of the Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee to come for­ward from com­mit­tee members.

2. The Chair nom­in­ated Peter Cos­grove as Vice Chair. Gaen­er Rodger seconded the nomination.

3. The Com­mit­tee voted Peter Cos­grove as Vice Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee.

Intern­al Audit Report ²⁰²²⁄₂₃: Risk Management

1. Eliza­beth Young, Chief Intern­al Aud­it­or, Azets, intro­duced the paper that gives an over­view of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity approaches to and con­trols in place for Risk Man­age­ment. Elize­b­eth high­lighted that the risk man­age­ment strategy was out of date for the organ­isa­tion and that a form­al risk scor­ing meth­od­o­logy for the assess­ment of both cur­rent and tar­get risk scores should be implemented..

2. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the report and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) The Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO wel­comed the report and the range of help­ful dir­ec­tion which this gives to think­ing on the Park Authority’s review of our approaches to stra­tegic risk man­age­ment. b) Mem­bers agreed that the example stra­tegic risk register would be an appro­pri­ate format to con­sider rep­lic­at­ing. This poten­tial for dis­cus­sion becom­ing too focused on the scor­ing of risk rather than wider dis­cus­sion of risk expos­ure was recog­nised. Mem­bers agreed that hav­ing recog­nised that poten­tial, it would be incum­bent on them to ensure they gave appro­pri­ate focus to risk man­age­ment considerations.

Recom­mend­a­tions

1. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to a) Con­sider the intern­al aud­it­ors report and find­ings; b) Endorse the man­age­ment responses to recom­mend­a­tions for future action and sys­tem improvements.

2. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee agreed the recommendations.

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1. Action none.

Intern­al Audit Report ²⁰²³⁄₂₄: Expendit­ure and Creditors

1. Eliza­beth Young, Chief Intern­al Aud­it­or, Azets, provided the over­view of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity approaches to and con­trols in place for man­age­ment of expendit­ure and cred­it­ors. Eliza­beth high­lighted to the Com­mit­tee three recom­mend­a­tions for action and the need for stand­ard­isa­tion in the organisation’s doc­u­ment­a­tion. a) Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions, noted that some sys­tems at date were in trans­ition from paper to elec­tron­ic with work­shops to be held with the wider organ­isa­tion on this. This pro­cess is look­ing at mak­ing the Park’s sys­tems smoother.

2. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: b) Mem­bers wel­comed such a pos­it­ive intern­al audit report fol­low­ing a review of such crit­ic­al fin­an­cial systems.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to: c) Con­sider the intern­al aud­it­ors report and find­ings; d) Endorse the man­age­ment responses to recom­mend­a­tions for future action and sys­tem improvements.

1. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee agreed the recommendations.

2. Action none.

Intern­al Audit Report ²⁰²³⁄₂₄: Pro­gress Report

1. Eliza­beth Young, Chief Intern­al Aud­it­or, Azets, provided the over­view of the intern­al audit review of pro­gress report, inform­ing the Com­mit­tee that Azets are on track to deliv­er the annu­al report in March.

2. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and observations:

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a) In response to a ques­tion from mem­bers on the reas­on for the ​“advis­ory nature” of the fin­ance sys­tem review, Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO, informed the Com­mit­tee that the func­tion­al­ity of the Park Authority’s fin­ance sys­tem was being con­sidered. The new sys­tem spe­cific­a­tion would be con­sidered by Azets and there would be a gate­way review before mov­ing to a full pro­cure­ment exer­cise. The Azets review and advice would sup­port this ​‘gate­way review’ exer­cise. Louise Allen, the Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions, added she would like to have ​‘self-serve’ func­tion­al­ity for the wider organ­isa­tion for expenses and pro­cure­ment. There are options of adding to the cur­rent sys­tem or mov­ing to a new one, which Azets are look­ing into.

1. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action: none.

Extern­al Audit (Oral)

1. Gregory Odour, Maz­ars, provided an oral pro­gress update on the extern­al audit plan for ²⁰²²⁄₂₃, inform­ing the com­mit­tee that the audit plan was on course and field work is cur­rently being car­ried out. a) Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO, reit­er­ated the timeline for Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee does not leave a lot of con­tin­gency time for approv­al of accounts and lay­ing those in Par­lia­ment pri­or to recess. Dav­id is encour­aged about the pos­it­ive pro­gress being made and good work­ing rela­tion­ships quickly estab­lished between Maz­ars and the Park Authority’s fin­ance team. Should any issues which may impact on the clos­ure timetable, Dav­id­will noti­fy the Chair and Deputy.

2. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) No com­ments were made.

3. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee noted the oral update.

4. Action none.

Inform­a­tion Request Update

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO, presen­ted the update on the num­ber of inform­a­tion requests, and key per­form­ance meas­ures in

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meet­ing them, under the Free­dom of Inform­a­tion (Scot­land) Act / Envir­on­ment­al Inform­a­tion (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions arrange­ments since April 2021. Dav­id high­lighted the sig­ni­fic­ant drop off in the Free­dom of Inform­a­tion requests recently.

1. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) The Com­mit­tee ques­tioned if levels of Free­dom of Inform­a­tion requests have dropped to pre-Cov­id levels. The Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO respon­ded that requests come in swathes depend­ing what is in the pub­lic eye at any one time. b) The Chair sought clar­ity on where the Scot­tish Inform­a­tion Com­mis­sion­er sits in the escal­a­tion pro­cess for Free­dom of Inform­a­tion requests. The Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO respon­ded that the escal­a­tion comes from the requester. The Park Authority’s Inform­a­tion Man­ager handles all ini­tial responses and any appeals are dealt with by the Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices. If the requester is not sat­is­fied fol­low­ing this intern­al review and second response, they can then go to the Scot­tish Inform­a­tion Com­mis­sion­er to seek a fur­ther review.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to: a) Note activ­ity in this area and Author­ity per­form­ance b) Com­ment on breadth and depth of report­ing for future updates

1. The Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action — none.

Draft Annu­al Report To Board

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO, presen­ted the draft Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee Report.

2. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) The Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the pro­cess by which Board Mem­bers are assigned to Committees.

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b) A Mem­ber ques­tioned if there were still any high or mod­er­ate recom­mend­a­tions and man­age­ment actions out­stand­ing from the intern­al audit sum­mary. Louise Allen, the Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions, respon­ded that there are some his­tor­ic high recom­mend­a­tions that are still being addressed, oth­ers have been super­seded by sub­sequent audit work. The Com­mit­tee will have sight of the full updated list of out­stand­ing recom­mend­a­tions at the next meet­ing in November.

1. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to a) Con­sider the report and; b) Agree any amend­ments to it, pri­or to cir­cu­la­tion to the Board.

2. The Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee agreed the paper.

3. Action: Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions to bring the updated list of out­stand­ing recom­mend­a­tions back to the Committee.

AOCB

1. The Chair informed the Com­mit­tee that she had atten­ded an Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee Chair net­work meet­ing in August which had present­a­tions on duties, require­ments, and good practice.

Date of next meeting

1. Sched­uled date is 24 Novem­ber 2023.

2. The meet­ing con­cluded at 1.55pm.