Hounslow Council has identified pandemic influenza as a new corporate risk, impacting population health, council services, partners, and workforce capacity. The risk, identified as PH0001, highlights the potential impact on the council's ability to deliver services and support the community during a widespread outbreak.
The Audit and Governance Committee noted the amended Corporate Risk Register (CRR) at a meeting on Tuesday, 4 November 2025, where the new risk was highlighted. The CRR contains corporate risks that cut across the delivery of all services, key programmes, and projects, and those that will affect the delivery of the council's objectives.
According to the Quarterly Monitoring of Corporate Risk Register, the council seeks to mitigate risks, treating them until the risk becomes something that is managed as part of the relevant team's business as usual activity. One risk has been removed from the CRR - Failure to respond to the recruitment and retention issues in Children and Adult Social Care (CAS0006) as activities to stabilise the workforce has had a positive effect and the risk is now being managed at directorate level. These activities led to a positive effect on workforce stabilisation, allowing the risk to be managed at the directorate level.
Two risk scores are provisional: Weakening of the Council's financial resilience (FR0001) and Material in-year budget deficit and resulting adverse impact on the One Hounslow Financial Strategy (FR0003). These scores are provisional because the P6/Q2 monitoring results are reported to Cabinet on 11 November 2025, a timeline that does not align with the publication of papers for the Audit & Governance committee on 4 November 2025. The narrative for both risks has been updated but may be subject to change once the financial position has been agreed.