Recommendation 17

The consensus from oral witnesses to the inquiry, including the current Government Lead Non-Executive, was that NEDs and boards have a role to play in providing continuity and corporate memory between new Ministers and administrations. While we recognise that the Secretary of State maintains the final decision over the composition of their board, there should nonetheless be a presumption against the automatic removal of all serving non-executive board members upon appointment. An updated Corporate Governance Code should set out the value of NEDs in providing corporate memory and expertise in periods of transition between Ministers and administrations, and the expectation that Ministers should avoid replacing all departmental NEDs on appointment. Moreover, it should clarify that if they do so, departments must set out the reasons justifying their decision in the governance statements of departments’ annual reports.