Recommendation 14

Within the boundaries of its terms of reference, the Bank’s Court of Directors plays an important role in terms of holding the Bank’s Executives to account and providing internal challenge. Its ability to commission performance reviews of the Bank’s policy committees provides a key means of doing so. However, we note that the Bank of England and Financial Services Act 2016 not only abolished the Oversight Committee but also reduced the number of non-executives on the Court. While there were mixed views from witnesses on the Court’s current composition of non-executive and executive members, the Court must be able to provide a source of effective challenge within the Bank. The Chair of the Court should consider how to enhance the role of the non-executive members so they are as effective as possible.