Cabinet Members and Directors and Business Unit Heads must maintain a written record where decisions have been delegated or devolved to other responsible officers.  The Council is required by law to conduct its business efficiently and to ensure it has sound financial management policies in place that are strictly adhered to.  The Council’s statutory Section 151 Officer is also charged with ensuring that proper financial management processes are in place.  The main vehicle by which these responsibilities are met is through this Financial Framework and it applies to every Member and Officer of the Council and anyone acting on its behalf.  This includes Officer responsibilities for timeliness and accuracy of relevant data.

The Financial Framework is part of the Council’s Constitution and also has links with related documents such as Codes of Conduct, Procurement Manual, Personnel Policies, and Asset Management etc.

All Members and Officers have a general responsibility for taking reasonable action to provide for the security of the assets under their control, and for ensuring that the use of these resources is legal, properly authorised, provides value for money and achieves best value, in line with Council policies.

The Section 151 Officer is responsible for maintaining a continuous review of the Financial Framework and submitting any additions or changes necessary to the Cabinet for Council approval.  The Section 151 Officer and/or the Monitoring Officer are also responsible for reporting, where appropriate, breaches of the Financial Framework to the Council and/or to the Cabinet.  The Authority’s detailed financial regulations, setting out how the framework will be implemented, are included in Part IV of this document.

Directors are responsible for leading, developing and improving strategies and therefore must ensure that full account is taken of the requirements of the Financial Framework before proposals are made to Members.

Business Unit Heads are responsible for ensuring that all officers within their Business Unit are aware of the existence of, and have access to, the content of this Framework and other internal regulatory documents and that they comply with them.

The Section 151 Officer is responsible for issuing advice and guidance to underpin the Framework that Members, Officers and others acting on behalf of the Authority are required to follow.