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Enhanced Departmental Boards: Protocol

Excerpt from Ministerial Code: “Secretaries of State should chair their departmental board.  Boards should comprise other Ministers, senior officials and non-executive board members, largely drawn from the commercial private sector and appointed by the Secretary of State in accordance with Cabinet Office guidelines. The remit of the board should be performance and delivery, and to provide the strategic leadership of the department.”

Purpose and remit

To form the collective strategic and operational leadership of the Department, bringing together the Ministerial and Civil Service leaders with senior non-executives from outside government.

Its remit is performance and delivery, including appropriate oversight of sponsored bodies.  Policy will be decided by Ministers with advice from officials, NOT by the board. However, the board should expect to give advice on the operational implications and effectiveness of policy proposals. 

Composition

The board should include two to four Ministers, including the Secretary of State, and three or four senior officials, including the Permanent Secretary and Finance Director. 

There should be three or four non-executive board members, the majority of whom should be drawn from the commercial private sector, and should have between them experience of managing large organisations. 

In each department, one of the non-executive board members should be designated as the lead non-exec.

The Secretary of State should chair the board, and in his or her absence the next most senior Minister.  Ministers should regard board attendance as a key part of their duties. 

Frequency and content of meetings

The board should expect to meet every six weeks or so for a relatively short meeting.  The board will have responsibility every year for agreeing the department’s three-year rolling business plan, and ensuring the sound financial management of the department in the context of the business plan. 

The regular agenda should include progress against business plan milestones and metrics, progress and status of big projects, performance against key efficiency metrics, risk management and assurance over performance of the department’s sponsored bodies.  Board members should expect to be consulted on the cost and benefit assessment for all major policy initiatives.  This is not to discuss the policy merits; simply to maximise the accuracy and objectiveness of these assessments. 

The board will also set sign off levels for programme and project spending – for officials at different levels acting on their own; for the Permanent Secretary; and for the Secretary of State.  There will be certain levels of spend that can only be agreed by the board itself; or by the Treasury.

Role of Non-Execs

The key responsibilities of non execs are:

• To give advice on the operational/delivery implications of policy proposals
• To provide independent support, guidance and challenge on the progress and implementation of the business plan
• To provide management advice to the Permanent Secretary
• To be available to advise Ministers on operational issues and performance
• To form a Remuneration Committee to advise on the bonus structure for the department.
• To form a Risk and Audit Committee
• To attend occasional government-wide non-execs meetings
• To be involved in the recruitment and appraisal of senior executives, and succession planning
• To determine, together with the Finance Director, a limited number of Key Performance Indicators for the department as a basis for monitoring progress

As a last resort, if they judge that the Permanent Secretary is an obstacle to effective delivery, the non-execs will be able to recommend to the Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary that the Permanent Secretary should be removed from his or her post.

The non-execs may as a group require management information to be provided in a particular format that meets their needs. They will also be able to have direct access to officials outside Board meetings.

A non-exec board member may also act as a chairman of an executive agency attached to the department.

The time commitment is likely to be around two days a month, including one or two strategy awaydays a year.

Departmental non-execs will be offered an honorarium which should not be more than that paid to Bank of England non-executive board members, currently £15,000 per annum.

Role of Departmental lead Non-exec

• To meet regularly with other non-execs
• To ensure that the Secretary of State is aware of any concerns
• To support the Secretary of State in his or her role as chairman of the board
• To ensure that the non-execs meet alone with the Secretary of State from time to time
• To liaise with the government-wide lead non-exec.

Role of Government lead Non-exec

• To meet regularly with department lead non-execs
• To ensure that the Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary are aware of the key concerns of the non-exec community and provide feedback on policy implementation
• To chair periodic meetings of non-execs from across government
• To work closely with the Efficiency and Reform Board to ensure that the work of the Efficiency and Reform Board is fully informed by the experience of departmental non-execs.