Paper 9 Internal Audit Plan cover

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Audit and Risk Committee Paper 9 13 March 2026

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For decision

Title: Intern­al audit plan

Pre­pared by: Cov­er — Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions Report — Peter Clark, wbg

Pur­pose

To present the report on a pro­posed intern­al audit plan for 2026 – 27 (Annex 1) pre­pared by wbg.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to:

• a) Con­sider the auditor’s proposal
• b) Assess the plan for 2026 – 27 with­in the con­text of the stra­tegic risks cur­rently live on the stra­tegic risk registers (main register and Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme register) and con­sider wheth­er the focus of work meets the Park Authority’s need for assurance.

Over­view

1. The pro­gramme has been developed from the Audit Needs Assess­ment pre­pared by wbg on their appoint­ment in 2025. It has been designed to provide assur­ance on mat­ters of strategy & gov­ernance, oper­a­tion­al deliv­ery and the integ­rity of sys­tems. Table 1 maps the audit plan to the risk registers.

2. Appendix A of the report provides an over­view of the planned audit assign­ments with­in the 3‑year audit plan to ²⁰²⁷⁄₂₈. It places the areas chosen for review dur­ing the com­ing year, with­in the con­text of the over­all audit plan pre­pared by wbg.

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Table 1 — assur­ance map­ping to stra­tegic risk registers

Con­text	Audit assign­ment	Asso­ci­ated risks
Strategy & governance	C2030 mid-pro­gramme review	2 — Match fund­ing C2030 pro­gramme risk register
Oper­a­tion­al delivery	Work­force management	3 — gaps in staff skill sets 13 — seni­or staff involve­ment in Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment policy 14 — work­force man­age­ment 18 – work­force flex­ib­il­ity to take advant­age of fund­ing opportunities
Sys­tem func­tion / integrity	Payroll	6 — sys­tems devel­op­ment 9 — robust IT services
Sys­tem func­tion / integrity	Cyber-secur­ity	10 — busi­ness continuity

Con­clu­sion

1. The aud­it­or will present their report and answer any ques­tions raised by the Committee.

Louise Allen louiseallen@​cairngorms.​co.​uk 02 March 2026