Welsh Revenue Authority Board minutes: 2 April 2020

Members

• Kathryn Bishop, Chair
• Dyfed Edwards, Deputy Chair
• Jocelyn Davies, Non-Executive
• Lakshmi Narain, Non-Executive
• Dyfed Alsop, Chief Executive Officer
• Sam Cairns, Chief Operations Officer
• Lucy Robinson, Customer Insight and Strategy

Ymgynghorwyr (advisors)

• Joanna Ryder, Chief of Staff
• Melissa Quignon-Finch, Head of HR
• Kate Innes, Interim Chief Finance Officer
• Jim Scopes, Interim Chief Strategy Officer
• Catrin Durie, Head of Communications

Secretariat

• Ceri Sullivan, Board Secretariat

1. The Chair welcomed everybody to the meeting. No apologies were received.
    
2. It was noted that the Board meeting scheduled to take place on the 15 of April would be cancelled due to the impact of COVID-19. This meeting would be replaced by a series of shorter, weekly virtual meetings held over the phone or Teams.
    
3. A schedule for these meetings had been drafted and would be circulated in due course.
    
4. The Chair noted that these temporary changes to the way the Board meets, would not compromise the governance in place and it would continue, as it has always done, to seek assurance and scrutinise effectively.

Information redacted (Footnote 1).

1. The Board was informed that a COVID-19 decisions and discussions log had been set up to ensure governance in decision making during this time.
    
2. Arrangements had been discussed and agreed for cover for the CEO should he need to take unplanned leave. Sam Cairns would deputise for Dyfed in his duties as CEO and Accounting Officer where necessary.
    
3. It was suggested that a document be drafted outlining the revised governance arrangements for the Board and its committees during this time. The Chair agreed to draft something and circulate for comment and agreement.

Information redacted (Footnote 1).

Information redacted (Footnote 1).

1. The interim audit for the annual report and accounts had been carried out remotely and was now complete. There may be some issues with resource in the Finance team but if the team are able to work around that then the final audit should be done successfully and remotely.
    
2. A request was made for a future item on fraud given that cyber-attacks were rife in the current circumstances.
    
3. Members would welcome regular updates on our partnership organisations and stakeholders and how they are coping during this time.
    

[1] There are certain circumstances where it is not appropriate to share all of the information contained within the Board minutes, for example, where it contains personal or commercial data or relates to the formulation of government policy etc. or the effective conduct of public affairs. In such circumstances, the information has been redacted and the text is marked clearly that this has been the case.