Appointments

Report: 3b - annual meeting
Date: 25 June 2009
By: Chief Executive

Summary

This report informs members of the appointment of Boris Johnson as Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority and Kit Malthouse as Vice Chairman of the Authority.

It also asks members to approve appointments, including the positions of chairmen and vice chairmen and membership to the Authorities committees.

The report also seeks appointments to outside bodies and borough link member positions.

A. Recommendation

That

1. members note the appointment of Boris Johnson as Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority and Kit Malthouse as Vice Chairman of the Authority;
2. appointments be made to the positions of chairmen and vice chairmen of committees/sub-committees (Appendix 1);
3. appointments be made to the membership of the committees and note membership of sub-committees will be made by the ‘parent’ committees (Appendix 2);
4. reconfirm the positions of borough link member positions;
5. appoint members to represent the MPA on outside bodies (Appendix 3);
6. approve the appointment of co-opted members to the Corporate Governance Committee and the Community Engagement and Citizen Focus Sub-Committee (referred to at para 13-18) until June 2010: and
7. note that all appointments be effective until the Authority’s next Annual Meeting in 2010.

B. Supporting information

Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Authority

1. The Metropolitan Police Authority Regulations 2008 provide that ‘if the Mayor is a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority he is to be chairman’. The Mayor became a member of the Authority on 1 October 2008 and therefore has become the Chairman from that date.

2. In addition, the Mayor may appoint one or more vice chairmen from amongst the membership of the Authority. The Mayor has appointed Kit Malthouse as Vice Chairman of the Authority.

Appointment of Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of Committees/Sub-Committees

3. At the Authority meeting on 28 May 2009, members approved a report that sought confirmation of the committee structure in order to allow appointments to be made at this meeting.

4. As part of this process members were asked, prior to this meeting, to express an interest in the positions of chairs and vice chairs of committee and sub-committee. The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Authority are proposing and seconding that existing chairman and vice-chairman positions of committees and sub-committee be re-appointed for 2009/10. Appendix 1 provides details of this proposal. This does not preclude members from making nominations at the meeting, but these would need to proposed and seconded. If more than one member has expressed an interest in a position then there would need to be a vote by ballot.

5. The Standards Committee appoints its own Chairman/Vice-Chairman. The Chairman of the Standards Committee must by law be one of its two external independent members.

Membership of Committees

6. Members are also asked to appoint the membership of committee and following approval of the committee structure, members are asked to appoint to the following committees.

• Strategic and Operational Policing Committee
• Finance and Resources Committee
  No more than one member of the Corporate Governance Committee can sit on this committee and that member cannot be the Chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee.
• Communities, Equalities and People Committee
• Corporate Governance Committee
  No more than one member of the Finance and Resources Committee can sit on this Committee. Similarly, no more than one member of the Standards Committee can sit on this Committee.
  The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Authority and the Chairman of the Finance and Resources Committee cannot sit on the Corporate Governance Committee.
• Standards Committee
  The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Authority cannot be members of the Standards Committee.

7. At this stage it is not proposed to have a fixed membership for Committees. However, it is considered that the first three committees need a minimum membership of seven. Equally there should perhaps be a maximum of ten members per committee or a balancing of the membership of those committees. The Corporate Governance Committee should have at least six members. The Standards Committee is responsible for handling complaints against members. The process for doing this requires the committee to have three sub-committees. Therefore, in addition to the two external independent members it would be helpful to have an MPA membership of six (ideally three assembly members and three independent members). The committee meets about twice a year unless there are cases to consider.

8. As part of this process members were asked, prior to this meeting, to express an interest in these positions and these are attached at Appendix 2. It is also suggested that the Authority should try to achieve a balance between assembly and independent members on these Committees. A minimum expectation might be that every member should sit on at least one Committee and one sub-committee.

Sub-committees
9. Appointments to sub-committees will be made by the appropriate ‘parent’ Committee. There is no requirement for members of sub-committee also to sit on the parent committee.

Borough Link members

10. Members are asked to reconfirm the positions of existing borough link member positions.

MPA representation on outside bodies

11. A number of outside bodies seek MPA representation on various committee, boards and panels. As with the borough link member role, members have been invited to give expressions of interest in representing the MPA on these organisations (Appendix 3). If these cannot be filled at this meeting it is suggested that they be referred to a future meeting of the Strategic and Operational Policing Committee. Members may wish to consider whether the Authority could appropriately be represented by officers in some cases.

Co-opted members

12. The Authority currently has two co-opted members both of who sit on the Corporate Governance Committee. A further co-opted member is being sort for the Community Engagement and Citizen Focus Su-Committee.

Corporate Governance Committee

13. Richard Stephenson is Group Director of HSE for Transport for London and has responsibility for developing strategy and policy in consultation with the Business HSE teams and senior management. He advises the TfL Commissioner and Board on the assurance given by managing directors regarding delivery of HSE accountabilities and provides support to the TfL Board Safety, Health and Environment Committee. He acts as the Head of HSE profession at TfL, including assisting managing directors in developing and leading initiatives to continuously improve the TfL-wide HSE community. Prior to this, Richard Stephenson managed Shell Chemical’s global HSE strategy with responsibility for corporate HSE planning, global HSE performance and assurance reporting and HSE communications.

14. Linda Duncan is Head of Governance with Hyman Capital Services. She has over 22 years’ experience in the audit and risk management field and is a former Partner in KPMG’s Risk Management practice in London. Before that, Linda Duncan spent 10 years in the public sector audit and advisory practice of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, providing external audit, internal audit and advisory services to a wide range of clients including local and central government and the health service. She is a past member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy’s Audit Panel, which is responsible for the Code of Practice for internal auditing in local government.

15. The Corporate Governance Committee at its meeting on 15 June 2009 recommend that the full Authority, in accordance with Standing Orders 1.8.3, confirm these appointments until June 2010.

Community Engagement and Citizen Focus Sub-committee

16. At a meeting of the Community Engagement and Citizen Focus Sub Committee on 11 June 2009 it was recommend that the full Authority, in accordance with Standing Orders 1.8.3 confirm the appointment of Richard Hunt as a co-opted member of the Sub-Committee.

17. Richard Hunt is a representative of the London Communities Police Partnership (LCP2) and has been invited to be co-opted onto the Sub- Committee to promote joint working and enhance the community engagement capability of the MPA. His appointment, if approved would be until June 2010.

C. Race and equality impact

There are no specific implications as a result of these recommendations.

D. Financial implications

There are no financial implications.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author(s): Nick Baker, MPA

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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