Board of Scrutiny

Noon, Thursday 30 September2004

Robinson College

Garden Room

Present:Stephen Cowley (Acting Secretary), Christopher Forsyth (Chairman), MargaretGlendenning, Nicholas Holmes, Timothy Milner, Elisabeth Leedham-Green, SaskiaMurk-Jansen, David Phillipson, Jennifer Rigby, John Spencer, Helen Thompson

Inattendance: John Little, Tessa Payne, Nick Pyper

1.Apologies

RogerSalmon.

2.Minutes of the meeting of 17 June2004

These were approved.

3.Matters arising

There wereno matters arising.

4.Ninth Report

The Boardwished to thank Council for their initial response.

Members ofthe Board voiced their concern that the Ninth Report was unlikely to have beenread by a large proportion of people due to it having been published duringAugust, and that consideration should be given to how people might be alertedto it prior to the Discussion.One waycould be to modify the Notice of elections to the Board which would bepublished around 18 October.

It wasagreed that the incoming Chairman would decide how to handle the Discussion on26 October, taking into account the comments made by members of the Board andthe paper from Roger Salmon.

5.Report on pay and gradingstructure

David Phillipsoncirculated comments on the Report.

It wasnoted that this was a particularly contentious Report.Particular concern was voiced about thepossible fall in salaries of staff categorised as T5 and CS4 as around 80% ofstaff on these grades are currently paid more than the maximum of the proposednew scale.It was also felt that therewas a risk that Directors salaries would not be published.It was agreed that moderation in theimplementation of the recommendations would be critically important.

Members ofthe Board voiced their concern about the timing of the publication of thisReport.It was felt that an issue asseminal as this should allow time for adequate discussion throughout theUniversity.

It wasagreed that the Chairman would write to the Vice-Chancellor requesting that theDiscussion of the Report is postponed to enable consultation to take placewithin the University.If a postponementis agreed, the Board will return to the Report at its next meeting. In theevent that the Discussion takes place as currently scheduled, it was agreedthat the new Chairman of the Board, or another nominated member of the Board,should speak first at the Discussion, on behalf of the Board.Other members of the Board would then speakas individuals.

6.Review of the Personnel Divisionand the RSD

The Boardagreed that the Review of RSD was a good report, and that it was now importantto ensure that it was properly implemented.

The Boardfelt that the Review of Personnel identified a number of concerns, and thatrepresentatives from the Board should try and see Peter Deer about this and theReview on Pay and Grading as soon as possible.

It wasnoted that Council planned that in future rules should be developed regardingthe production of such reports.

7.Review Committee on ballots

TheChairman of the Board confirmed that he had agreed to sit on the committeereviewing ballots as an individual and not as a representative of theBoard.He confirmed that generally theCommittee had been persuaded by a considerable amount of evidence that therecould be justification for a range of voting systems, dependant on the type ofelection.However, the complexities ofthe explanations supporting the various systems were considerable, and theCommittee had decided on balance to recommend the status quo. It was noted that ballots of Senate membersmay still be required in the future, but future identification of Senatemembers may be difficult.

It wasconfirmed that consideration had not be given to a situation where a Grace, dueto be balloted, was withdrawn by the Vice-Chancellor, and re-presented sometime later.

8.Epron Industries

TheChairman circulated photos and an accompanying letter sent to him by ProfessorEvans.The Board were aware that theissues raised had already been taken up at a high level and agreed that itwould not be appropriate for the Board to take action on the issue.

9.Plans for the coming year

It wasagreed that the following issues could be considered over the coming year:

Follow upon the reviews of Personnel and RSD

Money –budget, expenditure

Reportingarrangements to the Regent House

Board of GraduateStudies

Counter-terrorism

Delegation

IPR

10.Chairman and Secretary for thecoming year

Theelection of the Chairman and Secretary for the period 1 October 2004 to 30September 2005 was discussed.

It wasagreed that the formal notice confirming the election of Chairman and Secretaryshould indicate how to contact the Support Officer to the Board of Scrutiny.

11.Any other business

TheChairman thanked members of the Board for their support over the past year.

ProfessorSpencer, on behalf of members of the Board, thanked the Chairman for

his workover the past year.

12.Dates of meetings

The nextmeeting will be held on 14 October 2004.