Decision - Audit Report on Member Expenses

Brighton and Hove Audit & Standards Committee Decided 28 Jun 2022 approved GET /api/coverage

Decision maker

Audit & Standards Committee

Report author

Abraham Ghebre-Ghiorghis

Published

30 Jun 2022

Reference

6648

As published

the council's own words, unedited

1) That Members agree the recommendations in section 5 of the report and instruct officers to implement the same subject to amendments and addition to those recommendations as follows: 5.7 All Members should be supported with, and regularly reminded of, their responsibilities to submit fully completed claim forms with supporting documentation within the relevant timeframe. 5.8 Democratic Services should introduce electronic claim forms to reduce the possibility of a claim form being misplaced 5.9 That officers are instructed to consult with the Independent Renumeration Panel (IRP) regarding extending the time limit for submitting claims to three months 2) That the Committee receive an update report as soon as reasonably possible to a future meeting.

Parsed from the document

gpt-5.6-luna-2026-07-09 · 8529/1111 tokens · 9894ms · parsed 9 Sep 2026 11:51

Everything below was read out of a PDF by a model It is useful and it is not authoritative. The document it came from is linked in the rail, and where the two disagree the document is right.

The investigation found that Councillor Alex Phillips was potentially overpaid childcare-related member expenses by between £143.79 and £482.34, although poor records and unclear rules prevented a definitive calculation. It identified weaknesses in claim checking, record keeping, supporting evidence and the interpretation of travel-time rules.

Recommendation

Review and clarify the Members’ Allowances Scheme and the Democratic Services procedural manual; require complete and timely claim forms with receipts; reject unsupported or late claims; train staff and remind councillors of their responsibilities; and consider introducing electronic claim forms.

Financial impact

Childcare expense payments totalling £2,217.32 were paid to Councillor Alex Phillips from October 2019 to March 2021. The potential overpayment was estimated at between £143.79 and £482.34.

Ward affected

city-wide

Decision maker

Orbis Internal Audit

Date in document

1 Jun 2022

Stakeholders named

parsed

Councillor Alex PhillipsBrighton & Hove City CouncilDemocratic Services officersCouncil members claiming childcare expensesChildcare providers

Next steps

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Review the Members’ Allowances Scheme to remove ambiguity, particularly around childcare travel time.
Review Section 7.2 of the Procedural Manual for Democratic Services and clarify verification and authorisation responsibilities.
Require complete claims to be submitted within two months and supported by receipts or invoices.
Train staff responsible for processing claims.
Remind all members of their claim responsibilities.
Consider introducing electronic claim forms to reduce misplaced forms.

Precedents

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