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Joint Independent Audit Committee

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The Joint Independent Audit Committee provides independent assurance to the Police and Crime Commissioner and Chief Constable regarding the adequacy of the risk management framework and the associated control environment within Thames Valley Police and our office.

Members of JIAC are:

  • Melissa Strange – Melissa Strange is CFO (Chief Finance Officer) for an early stage company in the life sciences sector, having previously served as Vice President, Finance within a US and coUK listed biotech.  Through her current and prior roles, Melissa has overseen internal controls, risk management and governance practices as well as core financial management and strategy.
  • Dr Gordon Woods (Chair) – Gordon Woods is a senior civil servant at the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with experience in major change programmes, strategy and policy.
  • Dr Stephen Page – Dr Stephen Page Stephen is a non-executive director with 17 years risk, growth, governance and strategy experience as a board member in large, complex organisations, both public and private. He has a particular focus on the boardroom issues of the digital age including data stewardship and cyber risk. In his executive career Stephen was the worldwide head of IT/digital strategy and transformation at Accenture and the commercial director of a large global Accenture business.
  • Dr Chris Westcott – Chris is Chair of the Science Council’s Finance, Audit and Risk Committee, a member of the Department of Health and Social Care COMARE expert committee, a member of the British Council’s Digital Advisory Group, and a parish councillor. He’s been a non-exec director at an international geopolitical risk analysis and advisory company and at an Open Source research and analysis consultancy spun out from the Policy Institute at Kings College London, an academic visitor at the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the study of Journalism and a Trustee of the Science Council. Chris was previously the Director and Editor-in-Chief of BBC Monitoring for 12 years. Earlier in his career, Chris led the editorial and technological development of BBC World Service’s digital media portfolio and joined its board in 2000 as its first ever Head of Online. He was responsible for a sequence of major investments spanning online and mobile news services in 44 languages, including the BBC’s first 24-hour news services in Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish. He was the World Service lead for the launch of BBC News Online in 1997.  Prior to his BBC career Chris was a research scientist at the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s labs at Harwell. Chris holds an MA in Metallurgy and Materials Science from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Southampton.
  • Dr Luca Raffellini – Luca is an Executive Director of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) in London, formerly Vice President of the Financial Services practice of Frost & Sullivan. 28 years in the Energy and Chemical industries, with experience in corporate strategy, due diligence, risk assessment, and business continuity planning for large organisations. He held positions as Global Marketing Manager of a Shell-ExxonMobil joint venture and Senior Principal at Booz & Co (now PwC). He also serves on the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, chaired the editorial board of Insight magazine, and was on the Business Plan Judging Panel of Oxford University. Luca is a Doctor of Chemistry and an MBA.

Background documents

Agendas and minutes of JIAC

AgendaRelated documentsMinutes
20 December 2024
20 September 2024
14 June 2024
8 March 202412. TVP Audit Results Report 2022-23-Feb 2024 amended
12. TVP Outline Audit Planning Report 2023-24-Feb 2024 amended
8 March 2024 minutes
15 December 2023Strategic Issues SI15 RASO Court Adjournments
JIAC Annual Assurance Report updated by Committee
15 December 2023 minutes
6 October 2023Addendum to 6 October 2023 Agenda:
1. Covering Report for 2021/22 Accounts
2. PCC & Group Statement of Accounts for 2021/22
3. Chief Constable Statement of Accounts for 2021/22
4. PCC Letter of Representation
5. Chief Constable Letter of Representation
6 October 2023 minutes
16 June 202316 June 2023 minutes
17 March 202317 March 2023 minutes

AgendaRelated documentsMinutes
16 December 2022Counter Corruption Unit Brief, Fraud, Bribery & Corruption Policy
JIAC Effectiveness Assessment by JIAC updated
JIAC Skills Assessment by JIAC update
Evaluating the Impact and Effectiveness App F by JIAC updated
16 December minutes
7 October 20227 October 2022
Risk Management and Business Continuity – agenda item
7 October minutes
29 July 202229 July minutes
17 June 202217 June minutes
18 March 202218 March minutes

You can view previous years’ agendas and minutes in our archive.