Norfolk County Council's external auditors have singled out the governance of major infrastructure projects as an area requiring closer scrutiny in the 2025-26 audit, according to minutes from the Audit and Governance Committee meeting on 28 July 2026.

Ernst & Young LLP told the committee that, due to the scale and complexity of these projects, the area would be examined as part of their value for money audit work. The firm stressed that no specific concerns had been identified at this point.

The audit planning report for 2025-26, which the committee approved with four votes in favour and one abstention, noted that most key audit risks remained largely unchanged from the previous year — making the infrastructure governance flag the main new area of focus.

Committee members asked EY for more detail on what the scrutiny would involve. Auditors explained the examination was precautionary given the size and complexity of the projects in question, without naming specific schemes.

Separately, EY reported that the overall 2025-26 audit was progressing well, with work focused on addressing existing assurance gaps. The firm described audit recovery as a shared responsibility requiring close collaboration between the council's own finance team and the external auditors.

The committee also approved EY's audit planning report for the Norfolk Pension Fund, where key risks were described as broadly consistent with those from the previous year.

Members requested that a future committee meeting include a review of the council's response to EY's assurance gap analysis, which will be added to the work programme.