The Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland has today published new Terms of Reference for risk committees, which are intended as a guide for companies to adapt to their needs where the board decides it is necessary or desirable to have a separate risk committee.

The Chartered Governance Institute has welcomed today’s release by the Education & Skills Funding Agency of its ‘Academies financial handbook 2020’, in which the role of the clerk is recognised for the important advisory support that it brings to academy trusts.

The Chartered Governance Institute has today published guidance about ‘Shareholder meetings under the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020’. The guidance has been drafted by a Working Party of the City of London Law Society Company Law Committee and the Institute, with the support of GC100, the Investment Association and the Quoted Companies Alliance. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Financial Reporting Council have both endorsed the guidance, which is an updated version of guidance about AGMs issued by the Institute in March 2020.

ICSA: The Chartered Governance Institute is delighted that the government has extended the flexibilities around the arrangement of company meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic included in the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (the Act) to 30 December 2020.

The UAE’s Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation was honoured at ICSA: The Chartered Governance Institute’s 2020 Awards, picking up the award for Governance Project of the Year. MOHRE’s governance maturity evaluation project, which has enhanced the maturity of the Ministry’s governance system, sealed the win for MOHRE at last night’s 2020 Awards.

The Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland has today welcomed the publication by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) of the UK Stewardship Code 2020 (the Code), believing that the revised version reflects the changing needs of asset owners and public expectations. The governance body believes, however, that the increased focus on reporting to asset owners may have an impact on the quality and quantity of engagement with companies and the emphasis on ESG issues risks provoking more ‘policy statements’ than the ‘outcomes and effectiveness’ focus recommended by the Kingman review. The FRC and its successor will need to monitor asset manager reporting and activity to ensure that this is not the case, the Institute stresses.

Organisations are still failing to provide enough support to staff in terms of their mental health according to a poll out today from The Chartered Governance Institute and governance recruitment specialist The Core Partnership. Fewer than half (45%) of respondents to the poll believe that their organisation does enough to support staff’s mental health, with over a quarter (26%) stating that their organisation does not do enough. A similar poll a year ago found parallel results: 49% of respondents believed that their organisation did enough to support employees’ mental well-being and 31% believed that their organisation did not.

Only 23% of the 234,510 companies that are legally obliged to register their ownership details with the Companies Registration Office by 22nd November 2019 had done so by yesterday, Wednesday 13th November. This, despite the possibility of fines of up to €500,000 in the worst-case scenario.

Wendy Stanger, Director of Governance at East Coast College has been awarded an accolade for good governance by The Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland, organiser of the prestigious CGIUKI Awards 2019. Wendy won the coveted Governance Professional of the Year award at a glittering awards celebration at the Park Lane Hilton in London last night.