People Committee Terms of Reference

The People Committee is a sub-committee of the HMRC Board. These are the terms of reference to enable the People Committee to discharge their responsibilities to provide assurance to the Board on the effectiveness of people management; that HMRC are meeting their legislative responsibilities in relation to its people including H&S, DDA, equal opportunities; and that the people function priorities support the Department's strategic direction.

The scope of this responsibility will be all aspects of the business within HMRC and issues relating to the VOA as escalated

1. Membership

1.1 The People Committee will have three members drawn 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 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 10 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; and
  • preparing notes for the Chairman's report to the Board.

2. Reporting

2.1 The Chairman of the People Committee will provide a report of the key points to the Board, to whom the committee is accountable, 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 People Committee will provide a review of its terms of reference and its work to the Board.

3. Responsibilities

3.1 The People Committee will advise the Board on:

  • The strategic policies and processes for the development of People, their remuneration /rewards, talent management and Industrial Relations;
  • The strategic processes for health and safety and the quality of implementation of those processes;
  • The strategic processes for driving diversity across the organisation and key diversity metrics;
  • The leadership capability across the Department and its impact on staff engagement and morale;
  • The overall strength of the organisation and the quality of succession planning;
  • The quality of the implementation of major change programmes, with particular focus on the Workforce Change Programme; and
  • The overall approach to employee engagement.

3.2 People Committee 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

4. Rights

4.1 The People Committee may co-opt additional members for a period, normally, not exceeding a year to provide specialist skills, knowledge and experience.

5. Meetings

5.1 The People Committee will meet bi-monthly.

5.2 Additional Committee meetings may be called to address time critical issues.

5.3 The following will be expected to attend each meeting:

  • Chief People Officer (CPO)
  • Director Local Compliance
  • General Counsel and Solicitor

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.

Minutes