Guidance

UK National Contact Point (UK NCP) steering board: terms of reference and role (revised October 2020)

Updated 18 October 2024

This amended version replaces the original steering board terms of reference, first published in 2018.

1. Purpose

The Steering Board (the Board) provides oversight of the delivery of United Kingdom’s National Contact Point (NCP) objectives. The first NCP objective is promoting responsible business conduct to British multinational businesses using the voluntary guidelines produced by the OECD (the Guidelines). The second NCP objective is looking into complaints about British multinationals who may not be following these guidelines.

The Board also provides a forum for a range of interested parties such as businesses, trade unions, non-governmental organisations and other HM Government departments to provide advice to the NCP on responsible business conduct topics, like employment rights and sustainability.

2. Scope

The responsibilities of the Board are to:

a) Advise and assist the NCP to promote the Guidelines to businesses, trade unions, across HM Government, civil society and the general public.

b) Promote and raise awareness of the Guidelines and the NCP to the groups they represent.

c) Provide advice and expertise on topics in the Guidelines in relation to complaints received, at the request of NCP. The Board is not involved in decision making on the substance of complaints submitted to the NCP.

d) Agree changes to the NCP procedures for handling complaints and develop further procedures as necessary to enable the resolution of complaints in a manner that is according to the Guidelines ‘impartial, predictable, equitable and compatible with the principles and standards of the Guidelines’.

e) Consider requests for procedural review by parties to a complaint, in relation to the NCP’s handling of complaints, to assess whether the NCP has followed its procedures for handling complaints. The procedural review is not a review of the substance of a complaint.

f) Consider issues where clarifications or improvements to the Guidelines are proposed for bringing to the attention of the OECD Investment Committee or making recommendations to ministers as appropriate.

3. Role of the Chairman

The Board will be chaired by a senior civil servant in the Department for International Trade. The Chairman also represents the United Kingdom at the OECD Investment Committee. This is a committee of officials who represent their governments at OECD on investment and is the parent body for the Guidelines.

The Chairman will not make decisions on complaints nor be involved in any discussion of the substance of complaints, including procedural reviews.

If the regular Chairman is not available for a Board meeting this role will be performed by another senior civil servant in the Department for International Trade.

4. Membership

The membership of the Board will represent a balanced range of external groups with an interest in the responsible business conduct of multinational enterprises and relevant HM Government departments.

The 4 non-HM Government Board members are appointed by Ministers represent business, trade unions and civil society organisations.

As well as the Chairman from the Department for Business and Trade there are currently 4 HM Government departments represented on the Board; the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Consumer and Markets Authority (CMA).

With the agreement of the Chairman, the Board may invite other experts with specific competence in a subject relating to the Guidelines to participate in a Board meeting.

External alternates are appointed by Ministers. When a Board member is unable to attend a meeting either in person or by telephone (or video) conference the alternate may attend in their place.

5. Conflict of interest

Members of the Board must inform the Chairman where they believe that items to be discussed or being discussed are likely to give rise to an actual or perceived conflict of interest. The Chairman will consider this and will make appropriate arrangements for that discussion as needed.

6. Confidentiality and collegiality

If the NCP or any member of the Board requests that particular issues are treated in a confidential manner, provided the Board as a whole agrees, all Board members shall respect this confidentiality. In all other respects the Board will aim to operate in an open and transparent manner.

Although Board members represent their own groups or HM Government departments, they are expected to work in a collegiate manner.

Whenever possible the Board shall endeavour to reach decisions by consensus. When this is not possible the Chairman may draw conclusions based upon the Board’s discussions.

7. Secretariat

The Department for Business and Trade will provide the Secretariat to the Board. The Secretariat to the Board is not based within the NCP.

The Secretariat will support the Board in its work. Its responsibilities include:

• circulating draft agendas in advance of Board meetings

• recording minutes of Boards, taking actions points and circulating these for approval by correspondence

• publishing approved Board minutes on the NCP web pages

• supporting the procedural review process by:

  • acting as the focal point for requests for procedural reviews
  • inviting Board members to volunteer to serve on review committees and assisting them with arrangements for obtaining information and for meeting
  • acting as a channel for communications between review committees, the NCP, and parties to complaints, during the procedural review process

8. Meetings

The Board will normally hold meetings at least quarterly, or at times that the Chairman deems appropriate. The Chairman may also hold additional Board meetings when necessary for the Board to fulfil its responsibilities effectively.

Ahead of a Board meeting the Chairman will propose a draft agenda and members will have the opportunity to suggest other items for discussion.

The NCP team will attend Board meetings to provide updates on their work including on complaints handling and promotional activity. The NCP will not share complaint documentation with Board members as the Board is not a decision-making body for complaints. The NCP may also participate as an observer in other Board discussions but shall recuse themselves from any discussions that relate to a complaint that is subject to a procedural review.

Minutes will be approved by correspondence by Board members and then published on the NCP pages of gov.uk. The minutes will exclude confidential matters (for example, in the case of private or personal matters or business sensitive information being discussed). In the interests of transparency, names of serving members on the Board will be included in the minutes. In line with Civil Service practice the names of the HM Government members of the Board below the Senior Civil Service are not published.

9. Remuneration

Board members are not paid for activities related to the Board’s work.

Travel and subsistence expenses are not normally reimbursed apart from in exceptional circumstances and only with the prior agreement of the Chairman.

10. Review points

The terms of reference, membership and operation of the Board will be reviewed at regular intervals to ensure that they remain appropriate.

The Minister has ultimate approval of the Terms of Reference and membership of the Board.

11. Steering Board members

• Chairman - George Foster (Department for Business and Trade)
• Business representative - Vacant
• Trade Union representative - Nicholas Crook (Unison) 
• Alternate Trade Union representative – Stephen Russell (Trades Union Congress)
• Independent representative - John Morrison (Institute for Human Rights and Business)
• Independent representative - Lorand Bartels (University of Cambridge)
• Alternate Independent representative – Dirk Willem te Velde (International Economic Development Group, ODI)
• Government representative - Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
• Government representative - Department for Work and Pensions
• Government representative (observer) - Competition and Markets Authority
• Government representative (observer) - Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

In line with Civil Service practice the names of the HM Government members of the Board below the Senior Civil Service are not published.