Investment Committee Terms of Reference

Role

The Investment Committee is a sub-committee of the Executive Committee (ExCom). Its role is to make investment decisions on behalf of ExCom, based on information and advice provided by the Design Assurance function, for all departmental Change Initiatives.

1. Membership

  • The Investment Committee will be chaired by the Chief Finance Officer (CFO). Membership will consist of one Director-level representative from each ExCom command. In addition, the following will also be members of the Investment Committee:
    • Mike Shipp (Director, Departmental Transformation Programme)
  • Deputies will only be allowed by exception and with the agreement of the Chair and the relevant member of ExCom.
  • A minimum of two thirds of members will be required for the meeting to be quorate.
  • The secretariat function will be provided by the ExCom Common Secretariat. The investment analysis function will be provided by a cross functional virtual team led by the Departmental Investment Appraisal Team and Departmental Transformation Programme Office, working with other design assurance partners

The ExCom Common Secretariat will be responsible for:

  • preparing the agenda
  • commissioning and quality assuring briefing papers
  • producing and circulating draft minutes of the Committee meetings, normally within ten working days
  • maintaining an action log
  • maintaining the forward look of items for the Committee's attention
  • ensuring Committee papers are maintained in accordance with the Code of Practice for Records Management
  • preparing notes for the Chair's report to ExCom

2. Reporting

  • The Chair will provide a report of the key points to ExCom (either oral or written), copied to the Chair of the Change Delivery Committee, after each meeting.
  • Draft minutes of the Committee will be circulated to ExCom and to Change Delivery Committee as soon as practical and if necessary prior to ratification at the Investment Committee's next meeting.
  • Investment decisions will be reported to the Change Delivery Committee.
  • The Committee will provide a review of its Terms of Reference and its work to ExCom on an annual basis.

3. Responsibilities

  • Investment Committee has responsibility for deciding on the appropriateness of all investments within HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) that affect the Department's customers, lines of business, people, and IT systems. This includes initiatives that are funded by other government departments. All investment decisions will be made in line with Government best practice.
  • The Committee will take full responsibility for investment decisions on whether to proceed with Change Initiatives, and necessary release or withdrawal of funds in a gated funding process, on behalf of ExCom and in line with the Department's Strategic Objectives.
  • ExCom will provide the strategic direction and indicate the departmental priorities that should inform investment decisions, and the Investment Committee will determine the most appropriate portfolio of investments that will deliver against these priorities.
  • If the Committee financial threshold of authority is exceeded (£75 million), or if there are, in the view of the Chair, sufficiently contentious issues that require an investment decision at the most senior departmental level, it will instead make recommendations to ExCom. Where the Department's Delegated Authority Framework requires referral of a decision to HM Treasury the Investment Committee will provide a recommendation via the CFO for consideration by HM Treasury,
  • The Committee will consider Design Assurance proposals or options around Balanced and Prioritised Change initiatives to be taken forward, and agree the portfolio of investment programmes. It will provide details of decisions, along with any relevant criteria, to Change Delivery Committee and regularly review the status of the portfolio working with the Change Delivery Committee.
  • The Committee will take collective responsibility for ensuring that the portfolio of programmes addresses the strategic priorities of the Department, and delivers the Changes and Benefits identified at their outset/authorisation. The Committee will manage this assurance through the investment analysis function supporting both Investment and Change Delivery Committees.
  • The Committee will act as the escalation point for consideration of issues arising from the Design Assurance function, and for reviewing the investment portfolio in response to delivery concerns raised by the Change Delivery Committee.
  • The Investment Committee is initially not responsible for making an investment decision for any change initiative (to be delivered by one or more related projects) which has a whole life cost of less than £2 million unless the change initiative has a material impact on more than one line of business or corporate service area, or the initiative is novel or contentious. This responsibility will lie with the business area where the change initiative is owned. However the Committee will periodically review the threshold to ensure that it plays an appropriate role in the right number/level of investment decisions across HMRC. It will be supported in this by the investment analysis function, which will maintain visibility over this wider range of departmental investment spending and make recommendations to the Committee on appropriate levels of scrutiny.
  • The Investment Committee will review relevant issues referred to it by ExCom that appear on the departmental risk register.

4. Rights

  • The Investment Committee may also co-opt people for periods of not more than one year to provide specialist skills, knowledge and experience.

5. Meetings

  • The Investment Committee will meet monthly during the October - March Planning Round, quarterly at other times.
  • It may also meet in exceptional circumstances - for example when Design Assurance has been commissioned to evaluate new proposed changes or revisit those that are existing or when the Change Delivery Committee identifies major issues that require a review of the investment portfolio.

Minutes