Agenda item

Reference Sub Committee

The Principal underlined that the primary reason for today's meeting was to formally approve the draft 5 year financial forecasts for HEFCE which required submission by the end of July 2016. This had arisen from a recommendation from HEFCE stating that these should be approved ahead of submission and not retrospectively as the Board of Governors had done in previous years. A Reference Sub Committee held in early July each year would therefore allow for broad scrutiny and general approval of the forecasts ahead of their submission.

In response to questions, the Head of Finance reported that the forecasts were unlikely to be ready for submission to the May Board of Governors meetings going forward. She added that the format from HEFCE for these submissions was not accessible or downloadable in advance.

Some Members questioned whether the Board's Finance and Resources Committee would be a more appropriate body to approve the forecasts in future. The Head of Finance stated that, ideally, this would be the case. The Chairman responded that the Finance and Resources Committee currently had no decision making powers whereas the Reference Sub Committee was tasked with acting on behalf of the Board on matters referred to them. Members and Officers were, however, of the view that members of the Finance and Resources Committee should, at the very least, be consulted on the documents in future.

The Town Clerk undertook to ascertain if it were possible for the Board to revise the Finance and Resources Committee's terms of reference to allow them to approve this matter going forward. If this were possible, the Finance and Resources Committee should be scheduled to meet in early July every year for this purpose.