SHR Assurance Statements – Michael Cameron Blog Now Available

Scottish Housing Regulator Chief Executive, Michael Cameron has written a blog outlining their initial thinking on Annual Assurance Statements.   This blog acts as a note of a recent Working Group meeting that small group of SFHA and GWSF members attended, to feed in thoughts about broad principles to underpin the assurance statements.  

The statements are intended to be useful tool for organisations, to ensure that the governing body gets the assurances that they need that the RSL is performing well.   It was agreed that the statements should be short, with a set of core statements and any further narrative would be to explain any areas of non-compliance and how these are being addressed.   It was also agreed that the statement would measure compliance at the point of signing (likely to be October) with the RSL notifying the SHR if anything changed during the year. 

One key principle is that there should be a continuous, rolling approach to self-assurance – and that this should not lead to a requirement to carry out a big one-off exercise each year.   Existing mechanisms of self-assurance and evidence seen throughout the year should all feed into the overall picture, alongside internal audit and other methods of independent assurance.

Michael outlines the importance of materiality in how the SHR follows up on any identified areas of non-compliance – and that the SHR recognise RSLs may not comply with every aspect of every requirement at all times.   SHR guidance needs to reflect whether, when and how it will engage with landlords who report an area of non-compliance.

SHR will continue to liaise with the small group of SFHA and GWSF members over the summer, ahead of the formal consultation on the Regulatory Framework in Autumn.

The full blog is available on the SFHA website here