Transparency data

RSH N&G committee minutes - 25 September 2023 [accessible version]

Updated 8 February 2024

Applies to England

Public minutes of the Nominations and Governance meeting

on Monday 25 September 2023 at 9.30am on MS Teams

8 - Remote and virtual participation
8.1 Any member may validly participate in a meeting through the medium of conference telephone, video conferencing or similar form of communication equipment, provided that all persons participating in the meeting are able to hear and speak to each other throughout such meeting, or relevant part thereof. A member so participating shall be deemed to be present in person at the meeting, and shall accordingly be counted in a quorum and entitled to vote.
8.2 A meeting shall be deemed to take place where the largest group of those members participating is assembled or, if there is no group which is larger than any other group, where the chair of the meeting is.

Members

• Paul Smee - Chair (located in London)
• Bernadette Conroy
• Deborah Gregory
• Jo Boaden

In attendance

• Jonathan Walters - Deputy Chief Executive
• Richard Peden - Director, Finance and Corporate Services
• Emma Tarran - Senior Assistant Director, Head of Legal and Company Secretary

Minutes: ERT

1. Welcome and introductions

01/09/23 There were no apologies. Welcome to all.

2. Declaration of interests

02/09/23 No new declarations of interests from members. Executive officers explained their interest in the discussion on Annex 1 to Paper 5.

3. Minutes of last meeting – 26 June 2023

03/09/23 The minutes of the last meeting were approved, subject to minor typographical errors.

4. Matters arising

04/09/23 Matter 07/04/23 will be answered in a paper at the next meeting.

5. 2023/24 pay award

05/09/23 RBP introduced the paper and then summarised the Civil Service pay settlement.

06/09/23 RBP also reminded the Committee about the historical pay disputes between RSH and Unite, but updated that recent union meetings have gone well and both Unite and PCS are positive about Scenario 2 as set out in the paper.

07/09/23 RBP was asked to reflect on the proposals in the context of recruitment. RBP updated on a recent round of regulatory staff recruitment which had provided no evidence in support of needing to offer higher pay in order to be competitive.

08/09/23 RBP explained in response to a question how people end up at a particular position in a pay band. He clarified that there is no progression mechanism in current contracts (although there is in older contracts from around ten years ago or more).

09/09/23 It was noted that we are not bound to go with the Scenario preferred by the unions, and there was discussion as to whether Scenario 3 was more equitable across all grades. It was noted that REG have considered the principles at an early stage and one factor that was considered important was to also reward slightly more senior staff because they have largely had lower rewards in previous years. RBP explained in answer to a question what sort of roles are represented by grades 17 to 21.

10/09/23 In response to a question RBP confirmed that staff turnover is low (3.7% in most recent figures). That doesn’t show movement internally between roles but is low compared to other organisations.

12/09/23 The Committee was pleased to hear that negotiations with the Unions on pay have recently been positive. There was some debate amongst Committee members as to whether Scenario 2 or 3 was optimal, but the Committee was content to leave the Executive to make a final decision as to what should be proposed.

13/09/23 RBP outlined the requirement to apply Senior Civil Service pay guidance in considering the pay award for staff above grade 21.

17/09/23 The Committee noted the information and the challenges but also noted the advice that there is no alternative in the current year. Members agreed it would be appropriate for RBP to take further advice on how this is handled in other organisations.

6. Pension scheme update

18/09/23 RBP provided an update to the committee.

19/09/23 The Committee thanked RBP for the positive update.

7. Resourcing update

20/09/23 RBP introduced the paper, and the positive updates on recruitment. He also answered some queries about current resourcing. It is acknowledged that there is a lot happening at the moment, but we are moving through it. In particular he updated on the recently released training plan for operational staff.

21/09/23 The Committee was pleased to note these positive updates.

8. Governance updates

22/09/23 ERT introduced the paper and the background for the changes that have been proposed.

23/09/23 The members noted the proposals and considered them to be sound. DG had some questions and suggestions, in particular about sub-delegation provisions in the Board Scheme of Delegated Authority, and it was agreed that she and ERT would continue that discussion off-line.

24/09/23 ERT and JW assured the committee that for most formal decisions there is a clear process involving a range of officers prior to formal decision making, and in such cases it would be unlikely that any one decision-maker could act in isolation. ERT added that the Board Scheme of Delegated Authority and the Scheme of Financial Delegation are both in the gift of the Board and can be further amended in future if operational issues emerge. JW added that there was in any case an argument for having more than one officer at the top of the organisation empowered to make key decisions.

25/09/23 In response to a question on the Scheme of Financial Delegation, RBP confirmed that it was not the case that a sole Senior Assistant Director could fraudulently authorise a payroll payment of £2million. The authorisation is to authorise the whole payroll process, which is run monthly, and the payroll itself is checked by finance staff and DLUHC systems/staff. It was also noted that there are only two SADs, both of whom are Executive Team members.

26/09/23 Subject to DG and ERT finalising discussions on sub-delegation, the Committee confirmed their support of the presented proposals.

9. Any other business

27/09/23 There was no other business.

Date of next meeting: 15 January 2024.