The principal responsibilities of the Audit Committee are firstly the effective and efficient running of the annual external audit process and secondly the overseeing of the Group’s business assurance framework to ensure that our processes of risk management and internal control are robust, fully operational and effective.
The Audit Committee is chaired by Chris Page (independent Non-executive Director), and during the 2009/10 financial year its members included two Farmer Elected Directors, Robert Ranson and Rex Ward (who, following his retirement from the Board, has been replaced by Simon Banfield, Farmer Elected Director). At the invitation of the committee, various members of the Milk Link Finance team attend, including Nairn Glen (Group Finance Director), and the external auditors. The Chairman of the Board, the Chief Executive and other Board members attend if invited by the Committee.
The Committee meets at least four times a year with other supplementary meetings as necessary. At least one annual closed session is held with our statutory auditors Deloitte LLP, who once again have conducted the audit in a detailed and highly professional manner and provided valuable input to the running of our business.
Over the past four years, the processes of both the external audit and the production of the Annual Report and Accounts have been successively streamlined, bringing the date of the Annual General Meeting forwards from September (in 2006) to again early July this year, with no loss in quality of either the audit or the information provided in the Report and Accounts.
The Audit Committee also takes a lead role in leading the risk management processes we have within the business. Each year, concurrent with the development and agreement of our annual budget during Q4 of the year, we also develop a forward looking Risk Register. To develop this Risk Register, the full Board goes through a process of identifying and agreeing the key risks to the business that may develop over the forthcoming 12-24 months and would be likely, should they arise, to materially affect our ability to deliver our planned budget and longer term plans.
Once these key risks - typically between 10 and 15 - are identified, they form the basis of our Risk Register. Within the Risk Register each risk is fully articulated and an appropriate senior member of the Executive Team is appointed its owner. The risk owners are charged with developing mitigating actions against each risk and these are captured in the Register. Progress against them is reviewed by the Board on a quarterly basis.
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