Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Dr John Pugh, Sir Ron Watson and Derek Long.

The Monitoring Officer of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Jill Coule, addressed the meeting with regard to the quorum for this meeting, which she advised in accordance with the Constitution of the Authority should be at least two thirds of the voting members of the Committee. As one Member was unable to attend the meeting would therefore be inquorate.

Arising from her interpretation of S80 of the Local Government Act 1972, the Monitoring Officer apologised for the inconvenience caused but indicated that on balance, the meeting should be adjourned on the basis that the fulfilment of the criteria for a quorum could not be satisfied beyond doubt and that this could potentially mean that any arising proceedings were invalid.

It was clarified by the external auditor Gareth Hitchmough (Mazars) that with regard to the item of business due to have been considered at the meeting relating to the External Audit Plan 2018/19 of the Combined Authority, although not desirable, the External Audit Plan could nonetheless be legitimately determined directly by the Combined Authority at its next meeting on 8th March 2019 without a prior recommendation from this Committee.

All other items on the agenda would be deferred to the next meeting on 20th March 2019.

The next meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee will be held on 20^th March 2019.

The next meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee on 20^th March 2019 was noted by the Committee.