Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee Paper 2 02 Octo­ber 2026 Page 1 of 2

For dis­cus­sion

Title: Stra­tegic risk registers Pre­pared by: Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Operations

Pur­pose

This paper sup­ports a review by the Com­mit­tee of the Park Authority’s stra­tegic risk man­age­ment position.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to: a) Con­sider the cov­er­age and adequacy of the Park Authority’s stra­tegic risk man­age­ment pos­i­tion and advise on any gaps or amend­ments required to the cur­rent stra­tegic risk register. b) Con­sider the cov­er­age and adequacy of the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme risk man­age­ment pos­i­tion and advise on any gaps or amend­ments required to the cur­rent pro­gramme risk register.

Exec­ut­ive Summary

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s most recent stra­tegic risk register, and stra­tegic risk man­age­ment pos­i­tion is set out in Annex 1. The register was last reviewed by the Exec­ut­ive on 01 Septem­ber 2026.
2. Com­ments and risk trends have been updated; changes since the last ver­sion provided to the Com­mit­tee (19 June 2026) are shown in blue text.
3. There are 13 act­ive risks on the Stra­tegic Risk Register 26. In addi­tion, we are car­ry­ing 5 risks that are con­sidered to be man­aged: 3,5,7,8 and 12.
4. The risk trend for risks 1 and 11 have been uplif­ted from their pre­vi­ously repor­ted status as man­aged risks to show a stat­ic trend. This change reflects the need to keep these items open, as a con­sequence of the wild­fire; at present the risk scores have not been increased, but these will be reviewed in the light of fur­ther inform­a­tion on budget impacts and the out­come of the debrief on the wild­fire response.

Page 2 of 2

1. The Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme risk register, and risk man­age­ment pos­i­tion is set out in Annex 2.
2. The total pro­gramme risk pro­file is amber. This has changed from green in the pre­vi­ous quarter, owing to uncer­tainty over match fund­ing, and poten­tial delays to peat­land res­tor­a­tion due to the wild­fires. The Head of Ser­vice has noted in his for­ward look the inten­tion that the RAG status on all of the amber-rated risks will be restored to green at the end of Q3.
3. The amber rat­ing for risk 7 (Act­ive Com­munit­ies Pro­jects fun­ded by Trans­port Scot­land) reflects the uncer­tainty of fund­ing for the next stage of the pro­ject. We have been giv­en pos­it­ive sig­nals that fund­ing will be awar­ded. How­ever, there is now a very short times­cale for deliv­ery of the work. Mat­ters have been raised with Scot­tish Government.
4. Risk 2 notes that out­stand­ing match fund­ing com­mit­ments are being fol­lowed up pri­or to a review of the programme’s fin­an­cial pos­i­tion when key fund­ing decisions on trans­port and oth­er pro­ject areas should be clearer.
5. Risks 1 and 6 describe the poten­tial for delays to the pro­gramme arising from the Trans­port and nature res­tor­a­tion (wood­land and peat­land) projects.
6. The Com­mit­tee is invited to con­sider the cur­rent cov­er­age of the risk registers as set out In the Annexes. The Committee’s views on the cur­rent status of the risk registers are welcomed.

Louise Allen louiseallen@​cairngorms.​co.​uk 14 Septem­ber 2026