The Board of Commissioners
Our Board of Commissioners is the highest level decision-making body in the organisation, responsible for the strategic oversight of the Commission.
The Board comprises:
- Kishwer, Baroness Falkner of Margravine (Chair)
- Alasdair Henderson (Joint Deputy Chair)
- Eryl Besse (Wales Commissioner and Joint Deputy Chair)
- Marcial Boo (Chief Executive Officer – Commissioner ex officio)
- Dr Lesley Sawers OBE (Scotland Commissioner)
- Jessica Butcher MBE
- David Goodhart
- Su-Mei Thompson
- Akua Reindorf
- Kunle Olulode MBE
- Joanne Cash
Our Chair and Commissioners are public appointments made by the Minister for Women and Equalities. The latest round of appointments was announced in January 2023.
The Board has a strategic oversight role. It does not directly manage our operations, but delegates that role to the CEO and our staff. It holds the CEO and the staff to account by monitoring performance against our strategic priorities and ensuring that resources are being used to good effect.
The Board meets around eight times a year. We publish minutes of recent Board meetings.
Our committees
Our work is also guided by two statutory committees:
These committees, whose roles are set out in the Equality Act 2006, advise the Commission about the exercise of its functions in Scotland, in Wales, and oversee the exercise of some delegated functions. The statutory committees are chaired by Commissioners, and their membership is recruited by the Commission for their expertise and experience.
We have two additional non-statutory committees established by the Commission to support and inform our decision-making and work programme.
ARAC and P&WC are both chaired by Commissioners and can have both commissioner and independent membership.
Our governance
Our governance manual sets out in detail the roles and responsibilities of the Board of Commissioners, our statutory and non-statutory committees, senior management and officers. It is designed to ensure the Commission operates in accordance with best practice and in a way that commands public confidence.
Our relationship with government, and how the Commission operates as an independent arm’s length body is set out in a Government-Commission framework document. This details how we operate in areas such as spending controls, recruitment and responding to Parliament in a way that ensures our independence of government and our ability to fulfil statutory functions while remaining fully accountable for our corporate performance and use of public funds.
As part of our routine governance processes, we commission Board Effectiveness Reviews. These are carried out to inform our Board as to whether whether it is operating effectively and has the structure, processes, people and performance to deliver. They highlight where improvements can be made and ensure that best practice is being followed.
As part of our ongoing governance and transparency review, we are now publishing the last Board Effectiveness Review. This was carried out in 2022. We are making good progress with implementation. It was commissioned following the appointment of a new Chairwoman, Chief Executive Officer and several Commissioners.
All Commissioners on the Board at the time and a small number of senior managers fed into the review, which was led by an external agency specialising in board governance.
Our next Board Effectiveness Review will be carried out in due course.
Some information remains confidential and has been redacted under section 36 of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act on the basis that its disclosure would prejudice public affairs. Read more about this here on the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) website. Where information has been redacted in the review, this is clearly indicated in the document.
Register of Commissioners’ interests
The governance framework sets out rules and guidance for Commissioners on conflicts of interests, and we maintain a publicly available register of Commissioners' interests. Declarations of interests are available to download as Word documents, below.
- Baroness Kishwer Falkner: declaration of interests (Word)
- Alasdair Henderson: declaration of interests (Word)
- Eryl Besse: declaration of interests (Word)
- Marcial Boo: declaration of interests (Word)
- Lesley Sawers: declaration of interests (Word)
- Jessica Butcher: declaration of interests (Word)
- David Goodhart: declaration of interests (Word)
- Su-Mei Thompson: declaration of interests (Word)
- Akua Reindorf KC: declaration of interests (Word)
- Kunle Olulode: declaration of interests (Word)
- Joanne Cash: declaration of interests (Word)
Last updated: 15 Sep 2023