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Policy for transparency in the conduct of University committee business

Purpose

1. As a University for Public Good, the University of York is committed to transparency and openness. The University subscribes to the Committee of University Chairs (CUC) Code of Governance (September 2020) and the seven principles of public life set out by the Nolan Committee’s report on Standards in Public Life. Both emphasise the importance of openness and accountability; the CUC Code of Governance further states that governance processes and structures should be clearly visible to current and future staff and students (CUC Code of Governance, September 2020, p.19).

2. The need for transparency is also underpinned by: 

• The Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the supporting Definition document for universities and higher education institutions published by the Information Commissioner’s Office;
• The OfS Regulatory Framework, which states that in judging whether a provider’s governance arrangements are adequate, the OfS would consider records of how the provider takes and monitors its decisions, and whether decisions are taken in public or in private.

The legal and regulatory framework further acknowledges that there will be exemptions to the general principle of openness, e.g. to protect the interests of the University, and those of its staff and students with respect to their privacy and safety.  

3. The University’s Publication Scheme sets out the information which the University publishes routinely as part of its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, and includes a section on committees. This Policy and its supporting Procedures provide more detailed guidance to help committee secretaries to meet these requirements, and to promote transparency more broadly in the conduct of committee business, with appropriate caveats. 

Scope

4. This Policy is mandatory for Council, Senate and their subcommittees, with the exception of the Academic Promotions Committee and the People and Remuneration Committee given the sensitive nature of their business.

5. For other committees across the University, chairs and secretaries are encouraged to draw on the principles set out below in order to promote transparency within the institution, whilst recognising that these specific protocols apply to the committees listed above.

Policy statement 

Categorisation

6. All items for formal committees will be categorised in terms of: internal; confidential; commercially sensitive; legally privileged (or several of these labels as required), in order to inform decisions on wider sharing or publication. Further information is set out in the Procedures to support transparency in the conduct of University committee business.

7. The reserved business category for agendas and minutes will only be used in exceptional circumstances for highly confidential and sensitive matters. Excluding individuals or sub-groups of committee members from a discussion should only happen in rare cases, and reserved business should not be used routinely as a catch-all for any items containing confidential information.

Publication

8. A proportion of the business considered by University-level committees, once concluded and formally approved, will be made publicly available via the University’s webpages, in line with regulatory requirements as set out under the University’s Publication Scheme. Responsibility for making such items public rests with the business owner/author, working with the Communications team.

9. Confirmed minutes/executive summaries for Council and Senate and their subcommittees for the current and previous two years will be made available on the University website by the relevant committee secretary, within reasonable timeframes. 

Further sharing of committee business

10. Decisions regarding release or exemption under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act will be handled separately by the Information Governance team if and when a FOI request is received. 

11. Decisions on sharing of agendas/papers/unconfirmed minutes with internal or external colleagues beyond the committee itself will be made by the committee secretary on the basis of professional need, with advice from the item author/sponsor and the committee chair as applicable.

Requirements for sharing/publication

12. Redaction of sensitive material from committee items must be undertaken as appropriate prior to publication and/or further sharing, as set out in the supporting Procedures to this Policy. The production, circulation and publication/sharing of committee business must comply with Data Protection legislation and all related privacy and security requirements. 

13. Documents must be published/shared in their final, approved version, and in a non-editable and secure format. 

14. All webpages and published documents must meet digital accessibility requirements.

Record-keeping and archiving

15. Committee secretaries are responsible for the creation, management and archiving of the committee’s official record, with reference to the guide produced by Records Management on Keeping Committee Records. Both pre-redacted and redacted versions of committee business should be retained and archived. 

Procedures

16. Implementation of this Policy is supported by the Procedures to support transparency in the conduct of University committee business. 

Monitoring and review

17. The Governance and Assurance Office will contact committee secretaries annually asking for confirmation that their committees are operating in line with this Policy.

18. This Policy and the associated Procedures will be reviewed no more than five years after it comes into effect, or earlier should the Policy Owner and Policy Manager decide that this is necessary.

Document control

Further information

• Procedures to support transparency in the conduct of University committee business (staff only)
• Appendix 1: standardised categorisation of papers (staff only)
• Further advice and guidance: 
  governance@york.ac.uk