Board of Scrutiny

Thursday 29 January 2004

Robinson College

Garden Room

Present: Mantas Adomenas, Stephen Cowley,Christopher Forsyth (chair), Nicholas Holmes, Elisabeth Leedham-Green, SaskiaMurk-Jansen, Timothy Milner, David Phillipson, Jennifer Rigby, Roger Salmon,John Spencer, Helen Thompson.

1.Apologies

None.

2.Minutes of the meeting of 15 January 2004

TheBoard confirmed the minutes after some minor amendments to the wording.

3.Matters arising

3.1.Administrativesupport

TheChair reported that after an e-mail exchange with the Registrary, he was nowcorresponding with the Director of Personnel on appointing an administrativesupport officer for the Board. He noted that the Director of Personnel hadinformed him that the Role Analysis and Remuneration Manager would liase withhim to grade the post.

TheBoard agreed that the post would be twelve months in the first instance andthereafter renewable, and chose a sub-committee of the Chair, Jennifer Rigbyand Helen Thompson to make the appointment.

3.2.Meeting withthe Council

TheBoard agreed that it meet a delegation from the Council on 19 February 2004 atnoon.

3.3.The buildingmaintenance fund

Nick Holmes reported that he had been incorrespondence with the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Planning and Resources. ThePro-Vice-Chancellor had made clear that the Planning and Resources Committeeintended to leave the maintenance budget as it was allocated and that theUniversity has agreed to reallocate the SRIF 2 money to existing projects.Consequently, up to £6 million worth ofplanned maintenance projects will not now go ahead.Pro-Vice-Chancellor is satisfied that at the present time, themaintenance budget is sufficient.

The Board agreed to followdevelopments. It further agreed to consider some questions raised in Itsdiscussion of this issue about EMBS and energy purchasing.

ACTION: Nick Holmes to continuehis correspondence with the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Planning and Resources

3.4.Invitation to the Vice-Chancellor from the Board

The Chair reported he had written to theVice-Chancellor to invite her to one of the Board’s meetings during theremainder of the year.

3.5.The clarityof Council papers

Roger Salmon reported on his review of the Councilpapers for Lent 2003.He raised anumber of issues about the utility of the papers to helping the Council to makeeffective decisions and provide direction to the University.

The Board agreed that Roger Salmon would provide awritten report for a future meeting where the Board would decide how to proceedwith this issue.

3.6.RSD

The Chair reported that he had written to Prof.Cornish about the possibility tax liability to the principal inventor onassigning patents rights to the CUTS and received a grateful reply.

3.7.Auditmanagement letter

The Board agreed to ask for the audit managementletter.

ACTION: The Chair to write to theRegistrary and request the letter.

4.Progress onShattock and Finkelstein: Part One Internal Discussion

TheBoard agreed to ask the Registrary about: (i) whether the University’smanagement had Received from Robson Rhodes a table of the Shattockrecommendations with an assessment of progress made; (ii) his judgement aboutRobson Rhodes’ comment that there has been limited progress in defining, ateither committee level or individually, the accountabilities within theUniversity; (iii) which recommendations of Shattock and Finkelstein, he deemedthe most Important.

5.Any otherbusiness

There was no other business

6.Progress onShattock and Finkelstein: Part Two Discussion with Registrary

The Board met theRegistrary to discuss the University’s progress in implementing Shattock andFinkelstein.

7.Date of thenext meeting: 12 February 2004