Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 20
Publish departmental board terms of reference and individual non-executive board member responsibilities annually.
Recommendation
We recommend that each Government department make public the terms of reference for their departmental boards, including the individual roles and responsibilities of each non-executive board member. These should be published on GOV.UK and updated annually, or sooner if there are changes in board membership.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government agreed that roles and responsibilities of NEBMs should be published for transparency, suggesting this occurs as part of their biographies on departmental websites rather than requiring full departmental board terms of reference to be made public.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
20
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted in Part
We agree that, to promote transparency, there are benefits to the roles and responsibilities of NEBMs being published separately to Terms of Reference documentation, and as part of their biographies on their respective departmental websites. The Government’s commitment to review the appropriate role for NEDs and departmental boards, as part of the broader Governance and Accountability Review being led by the Rt Hon. Lord Maude of Horsham, is welcome. However, the Committee is disappointed that it is now over five months overdue.
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