john-lewis-partnership-plc-annual-report-2015

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John Lewis Partnership plc Annual Report and Accounts 2015
Audit and Risk Committee report (continued)
The Partnerships
approach to internal audit
Relevant qualifications of Audit
and Risk Committee members
Keith Williams has recent and relevant
financial experience.
The Committee reviews and approves the
scope of the Internal Audit work programme
each year. At each meeting, the Committee
receives a report from the Head of Internal
Audit and Operational Risk Management
on the work of Internal Audit, and on
management responses to recommendations
for improvements made in the audit
reports issued.
Change audits
Change delivery was a Partnership principal
risk last year and has remained so this
year. Examples include the John Lewis
transformation programmes, Pioneer
and OCCO.
During the year, the Committee has
reviewed 20 Internal Audit reports covering
key processes, systems and controls and
IT projects and programmes. The reports
have provided a wide coverage across
different areas in the Partnership and have
recommended improvements that can be
made to the control environment to increase
efficiency and add value. Examples
of the areas that have been reviewed in the
year include:
Operational audits
Operational audits included Buying,
E-Commerce, Social Media, IT Spend
Governance, Central Transport and
Contact Handling Centres.
Composition of the Audit
and Risk Committee
At the year end, the Audit and Risk Committee
comprised the following members:
aa
Three Non-Executive Directors;
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Three Elected Directors;
aa
The Partners’ Counsellor.
The composition, including the Partners’
Counsellor and Elected Directors, reflects the
Constitution and the co-owned structure of
our business.
Financial audits
Financial Control audits were performed
across both trading divisions.
Additional audits
At the request of the Committee, in
response to issues raised in other UK
retailers, an internal audit review of
rebates from both trading divisions
was commissioned.
Regulatory audits
Areas include Health and Safety and
the Waitrose compliance report with
the Groceries Supply Code of Practice
(‘GSCoP’).
Whistleblowing
The Partnership whistleblowing procedures
allow Partners to raise, in confidence, any
concerns about possible improprieties
including matters of financial reporting, risk,
fraud, internal controls and auditing issues.
During the year, there have been two audits
conducted in response to whistleblowing.
The internal audit plan seeks
to provide risk-based assurance
across a wide variety of
the Partnership’s activities from
Gift Cards to the Leckford
Estate, and our large IT and
change programmes.
The Committee conducted their annual evaluation of the internal audit function during the
year and members of the Committee and management were provided with an opportunity,
through an evaluation questionnaire, to comment on the Internal Audit function’s effectiveness.
The outcome of the evaluation demonstrated progress since last year although team capacity
remained an area where it was believed improvement was needed.