College Policy on the Categorisation of Committee Business

This policy was approved by Council in outline on 9 December 2004, and in this form by the Chair of Council in August 2005, to take effect from 1 September 2005. Minor amendments concerning Audit Committee, the Senior Management Team and Honorary Degrees and Fellowships Committee were approved during 2005-06.

Following the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act (2000), all written material held by the College must be available to the general public unless there is a specific entitlement or obligation to withhold it under the Freedom of Information Act itself, or the Data Protection Act.

The categories of Open, Confidential and Reserved business in the Goldsmiths internal committee system have been designed to mirror the College's legal obligations under current information legislation. The Confidential and Reserved categories together cover all material which can legitimately be withheld from the general public.

The College's Guidelines on the Role of the Committee Secretary indicate that Committee Secretaries have primary responsibility for classifying papers due to be presented to their committees according to the College's current policies on compliance with information legislation (section 1(b)(ii) of the Guidelines), but that this should be subject to consultation with the Chair in difficult cases. However, authors of committee papers are encouraged as far as possible to design them at the outset to target a particular category of committee business, and the officers of the committee should not normally change the designation provisionally assigned by the author without consultation with her/him.

Reference is made at various points in this policy to material appropriate for publication on the College website. This is to clarify the status which the designation "Open Business" implies. What is actually published on the website involves other considerations - notably resources - and will change from year to year without any need for a change in this Policy.

The following links give access to more parts of the policy:

• Background
  
  
• The categories
  
  
• Availability of Agendas & Minutes
  
  
• Provisions for SMT and Audit Committee
  
  
• Guidelines for authors of papers
  
  
• Implications of the categorisation system for observers