Agenda item

To consider recommendations relating to a Governance Review.

POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE

(Deputy Catherine McGuinness

(19 September 2019)

Governance Review

At its meeting on 14 March 2019, the Policy and Resources Committee had agreed to a fundamental review (FR) of the allocation of the City of London Corporation’s resources being undertaken. The purpose of this review was to ascertain how resources were being distributed against Corporate Plan priorities, to ensure that the City Corporation was operating within agreed priorities, and that the organisation’s financial plans were sustainable in the medium term.

With the nature of the City Corporation’s funding and service provision being diverse, good governance was essential in ensuring that the organisation functioned effectively. Supporting the governance structures also incurred a significant part of the Corporation’s expenditure and, furthermore, any changes proposed through the Fundamental Review were likely to have implications for governance.  Therefore, the Policy and Resources Committee, as the Committee responsible for the review and co-ordination of the governance of the City of London Corporation, had agreed that a review of governance arrangements should be undertaken in parallel with the FR, particularly given that a comprehensive governance review had not taken place since 2010/11. Acknowledging the difficulties that may be associated with doing this internally, it had also determined that the review should be undertaken independently. The Court was recommended to endorse this approach.

Resolved –That Members endorse a comprehensive, independent review of the City Corporation’s governance arrangements being undertaken, with the terms of reference of the review being “to review the governance arrangements of the organisation by undertaking a comprehensive examination of the City Corporation’s Code of Corporate Governance toensure that the arrangements are efficient, fair, transparent and accountable.”