Ethics and Responsibilities Committee
Terms of Reference

The Ethics and Responsibilities Committee is a sub-committee of the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) Board. These are the terms of reference to enable the Ethics and Responsibilities Committee to discharge their responsibility to provide the Chairman, the Chief Executive (as Principal Accounting Officer) and the Board with independent advice and assurance that HMRC is acting responsibly and ethically on a range of stakeholder issues.

The scope of this responsibility will be all aspects of the business within HMRC and issues relating to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) as escalated.

1. Membership

1.1 The Ethics and Responsibilities Committee will have three members, drawn exclusively from non-executive Board members with the possibility of a co-opted external member in place of one of the non-executives.

1.2 A minimum of two members will be required for the meeting to be quorate.

1.3 The secretariat function will be provided by the Chairman’s Private Office.

1.4 The Board’s Secretariat will be responsible for:

  • preparing the agenda
  • commissioning and quality assuring briefing papers
  • producing and circulating draft minutes of the committee meetings to members and standing invitees normally within ten working days
  • maintaining an action log
  • maintaining the forward look of items for the committee’s attention
  • ensuring the committee papers are maintained in accordance with the Code of Practice for Records Management
  • preparing notes for the Chairman’s report to the Board

2. Reporting

2.1 The Chairman of the Ethics and Responsibilities Committee will provide a report (either verbal or written) of the key points to the Board after each meeting.

2.2 Draft minutes of the committee will be circulated to the Board as soon as practical and if necessary prior to ratification at the committee’s next meeting.

2.3 Periodically, the Ethics and Responsibilities Committee will provide a review of its terms of reference and its work to the Board.

3. Responsibilities

3.1 The Ethics and Responsibilities Committee will advise the Board on whether HMRC’s strategies, policies, practices and measurement of performance takes into account the following stakeholder issues:

Our customers

  • Delivering our promises to customers and treating them fairly.
  • The security of customer data.
  • The needs of vulnerable customers and social inclusion.

Our community

  • Sustainable development and our impact on climate change.
  • Community engagement and colleague volunteering.

Our people

  • The way we do business as set out in the Civil Service Code.

Our suppliers

  • Behaving responsibly towards our suppliers within procurement guidance.
  • The supply chain of our suppliers.

3.2 Ethics and Responsibilities will also review issues within the above scope:

  • escalated via the departmental risk register
  • referred by the Board, ExCom or Audit and Risk Committee for in-depth review, challenge and assurance
  • regarded as high profile carrying significant reputational risk and external security for example information security
  • arising from challenge highlighted by decisions made by the Adjudicator and Ombudsman, relevant NAO recommendations and customer feedback

3.3 The following topics are covered by the work of other committees and hence are not within this committee’s scope:

  • Health and Safety
  • Equal Opportunities and Diversity
  • Whistle Blowing and Grievance procedures

4. Rights

4.1 The Ethics and Responsibility Committee may:

  • co-opt additional members for a period, normally, not exceeding a year to provide specialist skills, knowledge and experience
  • procure specialist ad-hoc advice at the expense of the department subject to budgets agreed by the Board

5. Meetings

5.1 The Ethics and Responsibilities Committee will meet quarterly.

5.2 The Board or the Accounting Officer may ask the Ethics and Responsibilities Committee to convene further meetings to address time critical issues.

5.3 The following will be expected to attend each meeting:

  • Director General, Benefits and Credits
  • Director, Governance and Security
  • Director, Corporate Responsibility and Diversity
  • Director, Individuals Customer Unit

5.4 Other senior executive staff will be required to attend as the accountable owner of specific issues scheduled to be discussed by the committee.

5.5 The Ethics and Responsibilities Committee may ask any or all of those who normally attend but who are not members to withdraw to facilitate open and frank discussion of particular matters.

6. Information requirements

6.1 For each meeting the Ethics and Responsibilities Committee will be provided with:

  • Complaints Management information data
  • Data Security statistics
  • latest customer survey and reputation tracker data
  • sustainable development metrics

6.2 As and when appropriate the committee will also be provided with:

  • relevant NAO reports
  • reports from third sector bodies on HMRC delivery or standards

Minutes