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19 July 2018 - Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Commissioners

Commissioners:

  • John Baillie
  • Stephen Cohen (until 14:00)
  • Alison Hastings
  • Bill Moyes (Chair)
  • Trevor Pearce
  • Simone Pennie
  • Catharine Seddon
  • Jonathan Scott

Executive directors:

  • Nicky Heathcote
  • Paul Hope
  • Neil McArthur
  • Tim Miller
  • David Pemberton
  • Helen Venn
  • Richard Watson

In attendance:

  • Mark Brett – Head of Public Services, PA Consulting (item 5)
  • (REDACTED) – Consultant Strategy, PA Consulting (item 5)
  • Teresa Camey – Programme Director NL Competition (item 5 & 6)
  • (REDACTED) – Senior Manager (items 2, 3 & 4)
  • (REDACTED) – Governance Manager (notes)
  • (REDACTED) – Futurist, PA Consulting (item 5)
  • Simon Knee – Head of Finance (item 5)
  • Nick Moore – Head of PMO (items 2, 3 & 4)
  • Oliver Sweeney – Head of Legal

Observers:

  • (REDACTED) – Independent Audit and Risk Committee Member

Apologies:

  • Sarika Patel
  • Carol Brady

Welcome, apologies and declarations of interest

There were no new declarations of interest.

The Chair welcomed (REDACTED).

Item 1: Minutes and actions from the meeting on 28 June 2018

The minutes of the meeting 28 June 2018 were agreed.

The rolling actions were reviewed, and updates agreed.

Action: Impact of mergers and acquisitions in the market, globalisation and gambling industry developments over the next 4-5 years to be included in the Board Quarterly Insight session (TM).

Item 2: Risk Appetite and Review

The Chair welcomed the Head of PMO and Senior Manager.

David Pemberton introduced the item. The Board were invited to discuss the Commission’s risk appetite.

Item 3: Review of the Corporate Risk Register

The Senior Manager explained that risks on the register had been ordered according to their threat level. The register is reviewed regularly at Audit and Risk Committee and by the Board bi-annually. The Board were requested to consider each risk, its mitigations and whether the target risk level was appropriate. It was advised that the mitigations outlined in the register are for one year.

Actions: The Corporate Risk Register commentary to include the connection between the proposed mitigation and the movement of the risk (DP). Moving forward, PMO to act more as an auditor of the strategic risk information supplied by the Executive (Executive Team). Risk SR8 to be reworded (TM).

Item 4: Board Performance Report

David Pemberton introduced the report.

The Senior Manager advised that the processing times for licensing applications had improved since the Board last reviewed the report.

The Board agreed the narrative in the report needs to be improved to ensure alignment with the metrics and identify whether the data used is representative of good or poor performance. The Executive confirmed there is enthusiasm from front line staff to adopt more metrics.

The Board requested a review of the Corporate Milestones as they are currently all rated green in the report.

The Executive advised it was undertaking a review of the commitments made in the Gambling Review to ensure activities are adequately resourced and planned for. Work will need to be prioritised which may have an impact on delivery of the Corporate Milestones.

The Board congratulated the Executive for the quality of the recently published Enforcement Report.

The Board noted the efficient and professional handling of the Annual Report and Accounts process this year.

The Executive confirmed benefits tracking for projects is reported to Audit Committee.

The following actions were agreed in relation to the Board Performance Report (DP):

  • an Executive Summary will be provided and include 3/4 areas for the Board to focus on from a positive and negative perspective
  • a commentary on trends will be included
  • internal indicators will be included to describe what good looks like
  • the wording ‘impact tracking’ in the External Indicators section of the report will be reconsidered
  • operator complaint figures to be provided as a separate figure in the Improve the way we regulate dashboard in the Corporate Services section
  • figures in the Corporate Services section to include percentages as well as numbers. Staff turnover rate to be included rather than the number of staff leaving
  • review the RAG status of each corporate milestones.

Item 5: Future worlds – workshop session

The Chair welcomed Teresa Camey and members of the team from PA Consulting.

The aim of the session is to identify a vision for the future of the National Lottery (NL). A similar exercise was undertaken with the Expert Advisory Panel (EAG) and the outcomes of today’s Board workshop will be considered alongside their input.

Item 6: National Lottery Competition Update

The Board noted the paper.

Item 7: Resolution to appoint members to Committees

The Head of Legal informed the Board that the paper follows the approval of the National Lottery Competition Committee Terms of Reference by correspondence. The Chair has subsequently confirmed membership for both NL Committees as detailed in the paper. The Board clarified that Trevor Pearce and Simone Pennie are confirmed committee members for the NL Committee and thanked John Baillie and Stephen Cohen for their outstanding contribution during their term on the NL Committee.

Item 8: National Lottery Annual Report

The Board noted the report.

Item 9: Finance Report

Simon Knee presented an updated financial report to the end of June 2018.

Item 10: Board Forward Look

Neil McArthur explained that the forward look was continually improving and that the outline for the September Board was reasonably firm.

The Board agreed that SID only sessions should be reinstated on the Forward Look.

The Chair confirmed that work is ongoing to establish the optimum arrangement for Board meetings. From September 2018 to May 2019 various configurations will be trialled to establish which is the most effective.

Action: SID only sessions to be populated on the Board Forward Look (NH).

Item 11: Any other business and Review of the meeting

Review of the meeting

The Board agreed that more time could have been allocated to the Future Worlds Workshop session. The Board considered that the involvement of PA Consulting had added limited value to the session.

The Board recommended that consideration is given to the readability of documents and that hard copies are circulated if necessary.

Action: The Corporate Risk Register to be supplied in hard copy at future meetings (NH).

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