Board minutes: 21 September 2022

The Chair welcomed all to the meeting, in particular Sal Naseem, Independent Adviser to the Commission Board on Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), as he participates at his first Commission Board meeting. 

Chair also welcomed Roseanna Cunningham, who joins as an observer while we await her signed Royal Warrant from His Majesty.

The Board acknowledged that this would be Commissioner Alasdair Morgan’s last Board meeting as he retires from the Electoral Commission Board serving two terms. 

Apologies were received from Binnie Goh, General Counsel.

The Board welcomed the external communications team, which joined the meeting to provide an introduction and overview to their work. 

The Board thanked the team for their time and updates and welcomed further updates on future activities. 
 

The Board noted a declaration of interest from Commissioner Sarah Chambers, she had been reappointed for a second term at the Pensions Regulator. 

Resolved: That the minutes of the Board meeting on 20 July 2022 be agreed. 
 

The Board requested further information on scheduling of the digital campaigns item. It was noted that a guest speaker had now been lined up, with logistics still being planned. Further updates would be provided at the next Board meeting.

Resolved: That the Board noted the progress against actions requested by the Board.
 

The Board discussed the Commission’s policy priorities and the need to have a scheduled discussion on the Forward Plan of Board business 2022/23, along with a discussion on plans for a Board meeting held in the Speakers constituency for February 2023.
    
Resolved: That the Board discussed and reviewed the Forward Plan of Board business for 2022/23, with pending topical items for scheduling.
 

The Chief Executive introduced the report providing updates on operations and matters arising.

The Board noted that since this report was written, the Commission’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy was approved by the Equalities Commission in Northern Ireland. The Chief Executive commended the Head of Projects for her resilience in order to achieve the results.

The Board was advised that the Commission will be hosting its all-staff conference on the 1 February 2023 in London and will see all Commission staff come together for the first time since the pandemic. It will be an opportunity to hold an award ceremony to identify individuals and teams who have contributed to the organisation. It was noted that several Commissioners had volunteered to support the day.

The Board was advised that the post poll reports were published today. The Director, Communications, Policy and Research and the Director, Electoral Administration and Guidance were commended along with their teams for their work on producing the report.

The Board noted further updates on the staff pay award, the Commissions IT infrastructure and progress on procuring a new Board paper management system. Other updates were discussed on the Voter ID campaign, ongoing work with the Elections Act and continued work with Political Finance Online.

Resolved: That the Board noted the contents of the report. 
 

The Board was presented with the Finance and Performance report quarter one, 2022/23.
 
Resolved: That the Board noted the contents of the report to track the delivery of our work programme and that the budget was being managed effectively.
 

The Director, Communications, Policy and Research introduced the report, providing the Board with information relating to the Elections Act 2022, giving the UK Government powers to put in place a Strategy and Policy Statement (SPS) as a new part of the Commission’s accountability processes. 

The Board welcomed the paper and the work that had gone into preparing it. It discussed some amends to the wording of the consultation response, and concerns on how the SPS would affect the daily business of the Commission once it has been finalised. There would be an opportunity to discuss next steps on how the SPS impacts the Board at February’s meeting.

Resolved: That the Board supports the approach and agree the proposed consultation response.

Resolved: That the Board agree to delegate to the Commission Chair and the Chief Executive the final approval of the consultation response, incorporating such changes as are proposed and agreed as part of the Board’s discussion.
 

The Director, Finance and Corporate Services introduced the report which builds on the report that was presented in July on business planning. The Board were asked then to agree the strategic approach to budgets for 2023/24. 

Resolved: That the Board agreed the Main Estimates for the UK, Scotland and Wales for 2023/24 and budgets for 2023/24 to 2027/28.

The Board received proposed meeting dates for the Board, Audit and Risk Committee and Remuneration and Human Resources Committee meetings for 2023/24.

The Board requested some editing to various meeting dates proposed, and agreed to continue holding Committee meetings the day before a Board meeting in order to keep Commissioner travel and accommodation costs down.

Action: A revised calendar of proposed Board and Committee meeting dates for 2023/24 be resubmitted to a future Board meeting for agreement.

Action owner: Senior Adviser, Governance

The Director, Electoral Administration and Guidance provided an oral update on equality, diversity and inclusion activities.

As was reported at item 6 of the agenda, it was noted that after consultation which concluded earlier in the year, the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland approved our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy, which is UK-wide, and the Single Equality Scheme for Northern Ireland.

The Board noted that we are now preparing for publication and are working on the action plan to deliver against the strategy – the people strategy will be an important mechanism for this work in practice, with EDI forming one of the pillars of that strategy, and a detailed implementation programme to deliver against this is in development.

It was noted that the Electoral Commission Northern Ireland also approved our revised approach to the Equality Impact Assessments (EqIA) and associated screening tools and templates. We have already started to use these and are now looking at how we can embed their use into our decision making and supporting this with further training, examples and communication.

The Board noted that our EDI group continue to develop our inclusion calendar, with the next series of events planned to celebrate Black History Month in October. As with International Women’s Day and Pride, we’re planning to run some briefing sessions with external speakers as well as share interesting articles and resources and encourage discussion through our intranet and across teams.

It was noted that the Independent Adviser to the Board on EDI would be working with staff colleagues on external EDI initiatives.
 
Resolved: That the Board noted the oral update.
 

The Board received an update on the Commissions anti bullying and harassment work noting some relevant staff survey results from 2021.

The Board noted the Commissions objectives and approach, overview of activities and measuring impact.
It was noted that work done on the dignity and respect policy would be circulated for information.

Resolved:  That the Board noted the update. 

The Director, Finance and Corporate Services introduced the report for the period 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022. 
The Board noted that the report addresses the changed approach to complaints   that we have been taking over the last year to emphasise lessons learned.  

Further to this, additional resources have been agreed to improve our handling of complaints further and we are considering further changes to improve customer service including the handling of complaints.
    
Resolved: That the Board noted the complaints received over the past twelve months.