Our governance and memberships
Only departments or agencies can create a governance page. It shows who is ultimately responsible for making sure the organisation:
- does what it’s supposed to do
- meets its legal obligations
- identifies and manages risks
You should create a membership page if your organisation has a board of experts, committee or council.
Do not use them for:
- explaining decisions or processes
- outlining strategies
- describing how audits or risks are assessed
If you create an ‘Our governance’ or ‘Memberships’ page, a link to it will appear automatically in the ‘Corporate information’ section on your organisation and ‘About us’ pages.
Make sure your content follows the Government Digital Service (GDS) style guide and tone of voice guidance.
What to include
Use the first paragraph to expand on the summary and explain what your governance boards and committees do.
Then, for each of the governance boards or committees you’re covering:
- create a separate subheading
- explain what it does (use bullet points if possible)
- attach any terms of reference documents (use a [publication box attachment](link tbc))
- attach minutes from recent meetings (attach the most recent as a [publication box attachment](link tbc) and the others as [inline style attachments](link tbc))
- link to the National Archives for minutes more than a year old (use this text for the link: ‘See the National Archives website for minutes from [month and year] and earlier’)
- list the board or committee members (just names and job titles - use bullet points)
Which boards or committees to include
Stick to the most senior governance boards and committees. A typical page will cover:
- the organisation’s most senior decision-making body (often known as the governing board)
- the executive board and/or management board, if there is one (usually the governing board plus a few other senior officials, minus any non-executive directors)
- the main body responsible for risk management and corporate governance within the organisation (often known as the audit and risk committee)
- top-level governance groups of very senior officials who oversee the organisation’s top projects (there should only be a handful of these, if any - only include very significant projects like major reorganisations of widely accessed public services)