Estates and Infrastructure Committee

Terms of Reference and Constitution

Governance reporting line: Council
Document owner: Governance Services

1. Origin

• The Council has established a committee of Council known as the Estates and Infrastructure Committee.

2. Purpose

• The purpose of the Estates and Infrastructure Committee (EIC) of Council is to provide governance oversight and advice to Council concerning major capital and associated projects, and on long term strategy for infrastructure and assets.

3. Responsibilities and activity

• The Estates and Infrastructure Committee (EIC), chaired by a lay member of Council, is responsible for governance oversight and scrutiny of major estates projects and major infrastructure projects (including but not exclusively, digital), as well as providing advice and recommendations to Finance Committee and Council concerning approvals for major projects. 
• For the purposes of the EIC, “major” will include any programme or project of consolidated spend in excess of £10m (being the threshold for Council approval), or which the Chair of EIC considers has significant strategic, operational or reputational impact on the University.  The Chair of EIC will be advised of all projects with spend in excess of £1m (being the threshold for Finance Committee approval) noting that a major digital project is likely to in the £1m - £10m range.
• The responsibilities of the EIC include:
  • (a) Scrutinising and recommending estates, digital and infrastructure strategic proposals to Council, including overall Master Planning of our campuses
  • (b) Reviewing the Estates Programme prioritisation, fit to strategic objectives and overall cost
  • (c) Reviewing the digital infrastructure and IT Programme prioritisation, fit to strategic objectives and overall cost
  • (d) In the context of these Programmes, scrutinising the development of business cases for major estates, digital and infrastructure projects in respect of fit to strategic objectives and value, as developed and recommended by EPB and ITPB, for recommendation to Finance Committee for financial evaluation prior to Council decision
  • (e) In all of the above the EIC will take account of information concerning the likely impact on students and of the best available information on students’ views
  • (f) Reviewing progress reports on major projects from ITPB and EPB
  • (g) Advising Council on relevant engagement with authorities and other stakeholders, to meet our “civic university” aspirations in respect of estates, digital and infrastructure programmes
  • (h) Reviewing performance in respect of relevant KPIs, benchmarks, sector standards and associated University strategic objectives (notably but not exclusively, Sustainability, Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity
• The Committee will ensure that it is fit for purpose by performing an effectiveness review every three years. 
• The Committee will review its own Terms of Reference annually at the last meeting of the academic year.

4. Reporting arrangements

• The EIC is accountable to the Council. 
• The Estates Programme Board (EPB) and the IT Strategic Programme Board (ITSPB) report regularly to EIC.  EPB and ITSPB have delegated authority for monitoring on individual projects and they will each provide a regular Programme-level summary report to EIC.

5. Constitution

5.1 Membership

Members of the EIC are appointed by the Nominations Committee.

The committee shall comprise:

• Class 2 lay member of Council (Chair)
• Two Class 2 lay members of Council
• One Senate or non-teaching member of Council
• Chair of Council (ex-officio)
• President & Vice Chancellor (ex-officio)
• President of the Students’ Union
• Two external appointed members
• Chair of Estates Programme Board
• Chair of IT Strategic Programme Board

5.2 Attendance at meetings

The following shall normally be in attendance at EIC meetings:

• Senior Vice-President (Academic)
• Executive Director, Finance and Planning
• Senior Executive Director, Students & Infrastructure (Deputy VPO)
• Executive Director, Estates & Infrastructure 
• Vice-President (Operations)
• Governance Services
• Current membership is set out in the Annex to these Terms of Reference.

6. Quorum and frequency

6.1 Quorum

• The quorum shall be not less than one third of the total number of members, plus one member.

6.2 Frequency of meetings

• Meetings shall be held at least four times each financial year. 

7. Resources 

• Secretariat support is provided by Governance Services.

8. Terms of Reference review

Date of last review: September 2023
Date of next review: September 2024

Annex