Reporter 9/7/03: Annual Reports of the Council and the General Board for 2001-02: Notice

Annual Reports of the Council and the General Board for 2001-02: Notice

7 July 2003

The Council have considered the remarks made at the Discussion of these Reports on 28 January 2003 (Reporter, pp. 552 and 557) and have invited the response of the General Board to the remarks on the Board's Annual Report. With regard to the remarks that concern their own Annual Report the Council have agreed to comment as follows:

Conduct of ballots

The Council have noted the comments made at the Discussion of their Annual Report about the complexity of the ballot on governance matters held during the Lent Term. As set out in their recent Report on governance (chairmanship of the Audit Committee and external membership of the Council) (Reporter, p. 920) they propose to report further to the Regent House about arrangements for ballots which would seek to address these problems.

Senior Academic Women's Advisory Group (SAWAG)

The Chairman of the Board of Scrutiny and others asked for information about the Senior Academic Women's Advisory Group. SAWAG is not a committee appointed by the Council or the General Board but a group of senior academic women who have met with the Vice-Chancellor on an informal basis at their request to raise issues such as the representation of women on University bodies and employment of women in the University.

Executive Committee and Business Committee of the Council

The Chairman of the Board of Scrutiny requested a formal statement of the role of the Executive Committee and the Business Committee of the Council. The terms of reference of the Executive Committee, which is a statutory committee of the Council, are to consider prospective donations of over £1m and any donation which might breach the University's ethical policy and to consider legal matters on behalf of the Council. The present membership is: the Vice-Chancellor as Chairman, the Master of Churchill College, Professor Leslie, Dr Reid, Dr Taub, and Ms Leaton Gray (to 30 June 2003).

The terms of reference of the Business Committee are to consider and approve for publication straightforward Graces, Notices in response to remarks made at Discussions, other Notices that require the approval of the Council, and Reports of other bodies (for example Reports signed by the General Board or Faculty Boards). The Business Committee also revises draft versions of Council Reports at the request of the Council before the final Report is forwarded for signature by the Council. The Committee may also consider an initial draft before a Report is seen by the Council. All the papers seen by the Business Committee and the agenda for its meetings are circulated concurrently to all members of the Council and any item of business before the Committee may be held back and referred to a full meeting of the Council by any member of the Council. The present membership of the Business Committee is: the Master of St John's as Chairman, Dr Reid, Dr Good, Mr Matheson, and Mr Lewis (to 30 June 2003).

Principal Administrative Officers

The Council have made an announcement on this matter (Reporter, p. 1048) and expect to publish further information about consequential changes in the Central Administration in the near future.

Staff

Comments were made on training, membership of committees, promotions, and the institutional audit. There has been much activity within the Personnel Division during the current year and this will be reported in the Council's next Annual Report. Reference to developments in Human Resources (HR), including staff training are included in the response to the Board of Scrutiny's Seventh Report; Reports on promotions procedures (Reporter, p. 98) and arrangements for regrading of certain academic-related post and for rewarding discretionary increments (Reporter, p. 771) have been published during the current academical year.

Financial Matters

Since the publication and the Discussion of the Council's Annual Report, the Finance Working Group under the Chairmanship of Professor Malcolm Grant, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, has reported to the Council and a summary of that Working Group's findings has been published in the Reporter (p. 697). The full report is available on the University website at http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/cam-only/committee/council/ and the issues raised in the report will be addressed in the Allocations Report for 2003-04 (see p. 1074) and through further work.

The General Board have commented on the remarks that concern their Report as follows:

Dr D. R. J. Laming's remarks have been raised previously in a number of Discussions and the Board have responded to them. In the context of this Report, the points Dr Laming raises do not differ in substance from those points and the General Board accordingly have nothing to add to their previous responses.

With regard to the remarks made by Professor G. R. Evans that are relevant to the paragraphs on personnel matters (23-25), the General Board wish only to comment on her suggestion that there is no external regulatory interest in employment matters. This is not entirely true. In allocating additional resources for HR matters through its Rewarding and Developing Staff Initiative, the HEFCE has imposed requirements which have to be met if the University is to justify obtaining its share of those resources, and is monitoring progress on implementation.

The Council are submitting a Grace to the Regent House (Grace 8, p. 1116) for the approval of their Annual Report.

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