Our governance

Information on the boards and committees in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Our Departmental Board

The Departmental Board (the board) is an advisory board responsible for the collective strategic and operational leadership of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (the department).

The role and remit of the board

The board provides advice and challenge to the department on its performance and delivery of its priorities and brings together ministers, officials, and non-executive directors (independent experts). The board operates according to the corporate governance code for central government departments (the corporate governance code) and recognised principles of good corporate governance in business: leadership, effectiveness, accountability and sustainability.

The board delegates day-to-day oversight of these matters to the executive committee and other departmental sub-committees.

Board membership

The board should be balanced, with approximately equal numbers of ministers, senior officials and non-executive board members. It should comprise:

  • the department’s lead minister, who should chair
  • other departmental ministers
  • the permanent secretary
  • the finance director, who should be professionally qualified
  • other senior officials
  • at least four non-executive board members, the majority of whom should be senior people from the commercial private sector, with experience of managing complex organisations.

Members of the board

Ministers

Senior officials

Non-executive directors

Roles and responsibilities of board members

The board and its members should:

  • collectively affirm and document its understanding of the department’s purpose and document the board’s role and responsibilities in a board operating framework
  • act corporately and objectively when discharging its responsibilities
  • act in the public interest in keeping with the Nolan principles of public life: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. Board members should act in accordance with the Code of conduct for board members for public bodies (board members code of conduct)
  • support actions to ensure that officials comply with the Civil Service Code
  • ensure that the department’s reporting obligations to the Treasury, Cabinet Office and Parliament are met effectively and efficiently

Where board members have concerns, which cannot be resolved, about the running of the department or a proposed action, they should ensure that their concerns are recorded in the minutes. This might occur, for example, in the rare circumstance in which the lead minister, as chair of the board, considers it necessary to depart from the collective view of the board.

Committees of the board

There are two committees of the board; the Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee and the Nominations Committee. The board will be kept informed of the work of these committees through the sharing of committee minutes in board meeting packs or through verbal updates by the committee chairs.

Our Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee

The Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee supports the accounting officer and the board by reviewing the nature and adequacy of assurances provided on governance, risk management and control. The committee is chaired by a non-executive director and may consider any issue relating to the running of the department and its public bodies and provide assurance, as necessary. The committee has no delegated powers to take decisions or engage in policy but may consider the relevant and material factors being assessed and resourced.

The board delegates responsibility to the Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee for making sure that the department’s reporting obligations to the Treasury, Cabinet Office and Parliament are met efficiently and effectively.

The members of the Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee are:

  • Liz Cohen, Non-Executive Board Member and Chair of the Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee
  • Shonnel Malani, Lead Non-Executive Board Member
  • Dr Vikas Shah MBE DL, Non-Executive Board Member
  • Bryan Ingleby, Non-Executive Board Member
  • Professor Gillian Leng CBE, Non-Executive Board Member
  • Mark Poulton, Non-Executive Board Member

Our Nominations Committee

The Nominations Committee advises on whether the department’s people related processes (for rewarding senior executives) are effective in helping DSIT achieve its goals. The committee does not have a role in deciding individual cases (for example, the level of reward of a particular senior executive) and will not make decisions on senior appointments in the department’s public bodies but it may discuss a key appointment if appropriate. The committee is chaired by the Lead Non-Executive Board Member.

The members of the Nominations Committee are:

Other committees in the department

Permanent Secretary committees

Two committees chaired by the Permanent Secretary and attended by senior officials set the strategic direction for the departments work.

These committees include the:

  • Executive Committee
  • Investment Committee

Sub-committees

Five sub-committees propose strategy, steer and shape the delivery of projects and programmes, provide assurance and make decisions on day-to-day operational matters in the department. These are chaired by Directors General who provide a quarterly report to the Permanent Secretary’s committees on the matters considered by that sub-committee.

These sub-committees include the:

  • Delivery and Risk Committee
  • Investment Advisory Committee
  • International Committee
  • People, Operations and Place Committee
  • Security Committee
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