
Next in our series of ebriefings on the Government’s Green Paper: Transforming public procurement; looking at the Chapter 4 proposal to change the basis of contract awards.
Housing associations must continue to deliver core functions effectively and compliantly notwithstanding the uncertainty over the standards to which will be held in the future, and doubts as to where your income and new supply of housing will come from.
The 7th annual Sector Risk Profile was published in mid-October – later in the year than previous ones, as though the Regulator held out as long as it could to see whether any of these uncertainties resolved themselves (spoiler: they didn’t).
There were no surprises in its areas of focus, nor that these were couched in the strongest terms of Board responsibility:
The Regulator’s expectation is that Boards are fully in control of their organisation, understand the inherent risks in all areas of their business and own the effective management and mitigation of those risks (and any consequences of not doing so).
Where things go wrong, we continue to see the Regulator treat this as a failure of governance laid at the feet of the Board. Its lack of sympathy for Boards that are not on the front foot is evident in the wording of recent regulatory reports and downgrades – early disclosure to the Regulator of any potential regulatory breaches is key, as is keeping them informed of what, when and how you are doing to fix things.
However, beware the Board that comes across the Regulator’s desk a little too often – it often views a series of seemingly minor breaches as a more significant indicator of systemic governance failure than one mighty one.
We provide support to Boards and organisations on all types of governance issues, including managing breaches and potential breaches and engagement with the Regulator. We also provide advice to organisations on how to strengthen their governance arrangements and test risk flow within their current structures.
Please contact partners Victoria Jardine, Peter Hubbard or Gemma Bell for a confidential discussion.
Next in our series of ebriefings on the Government’s Green Paper: Transforming public procurement; looking at the Chapter 4 proposal to change the basis of contract awards.
The Academies Financial Handbook is updated annually by the Department for Education and the Education and Skills Funding Agency; it contains a number of governance requirements for academy trusts.
Supreme Court publishes key decision for those working in the UK’s gig economy.
The 'Chocolate Snowman Appeal' is an amazing initiative that Anthony Collins Solicitors' (ACS) employees take part in every year.
The Building Safety Bill (the Bill) is said to be the most significant and wide-ranging change to the regulatory environment for higher risk building (HRBs) for over 45 years.
On 4 November 2020, the Restriction of Public Exit Payments Regulations 2020 (the Regulations) came into force; exit payments for the public sector were capped at £95,000.
The case was brought by the Official Receiver who sought disqualification orders under section 6 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 (CDDA 1986) against the seven trustees of Kids Company and its CEO. It illustrates well the tension between the role of a fulltime paid CEO of a large charity and the role of its board as voluntary trustees/directors.
At the end of 2020, The Charity Governance Code was updated or 'refreshed' as it is termed on its website.
Anthony Collins Solicitors is today (Thursday 11 February) revealing the scale of its social impact during 2020.
In their first podcast of this series, current and future trainees will discuss their journey and route to securing a training contract at Anthony Collins Solicitors.
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