Board Responsibilities

At Barclays we think of governance as how the Board makes decisions and provides oversight in order to promote Barclays’ success for the long-term benefit of our shareholders having regard to the interests of our other priority stakeholder groups – our clients, customers, colleagues and the society in which we operate.

The Board sets the purpose and strategic direction and risk appetite of the Group and is the ultimate decision-making body for matters of Group-wide strategic, financial, regulatory or reputational significance. A bespoke corporate governance framework sets out those matters reserved solely to the decision-making power of the Board. A summary of the matters reserved for the Board is found below.

Changes relating to capital structure or status as a PLC

Approval of annual capital plan

Approval of risk appetite and liquidity risk appetite
Approval of interim and ﬁnal financial statements, dividends and any signiﬁcant change in accounting policies or practices

Any share dividend alternative
Approval of Barclays' Group strategy, medium-term and short-term plans

Reviewing delivery of the strategy and measure performance against plan

Major capital projects, investments, acquisitions, mergers or disposals
Board appointments and removals

Board Committee establishment and membership

Succession planning for key positions on the Board

Charter of expectations of key positions on the Board
Approval of the framework for determining the policy and specific remuneration of the Chair and executive directors

Approval of non-executive director remuneration

Major changes in employee share schemes
Authorisation for directors’ conflicts or possible conflicts of interest

Recommendations for appointment or removal of auditors

Approval of all circulars, prospectuses and significant press releases

Principal regulatory filings and filings in other jurisdictions as required

Approval of allotment of shares

Rules and procedures for dealing in Barclays securities

Terms of reference and membership of Board committees

Approval of Board and Board committees performance evaluation process

Determination of independence of non-executive directors

Approval of Corporate Governance framework

Approval of division of responsibilities between the Chair and Chief Executive

Appointment (or removal) of Company Secretary and Chief Risk Officer

Roles on the Board

Executive and Non-Executive Directors share the same duties. However, in line with the principles of the Code, a clear division of responsibilities has been established.

The Chair is responsible for:

leading the Board and its overall effectiveness
demonstrating objective judgement
promoting a culture of openness and constructive challenge and debate between all Directors
facilitating constructive board relations and the effective contribution of all Non-
Executive Directors ensuring Directors receive accurate, clear and timely information.

Responsibility for the day-to-day management of the Group is delegated to the Group Chief Executive, who is supported in this role by the Executive Committee. You can find further information on the membership of the ExCo on our leadership page.

As a Board we have set out our expectations of each Director in Barclays’ Charter of Expectations. This includes role profiles and the behaviours and competencies required for each role on the Board, namely the Chair, Deputy Chair (to the extent one is required), the SID, Non-Executive Directors, Executive Directors and Committee Chairs.

Our Non-Executive Directors provide effective oversight and scrutiny, strategic guidance and constructive challenge, holding the Executive Directors to account against their agreed performance objectives. The Non-Executive Directors, led by the Nominations Committee, have primary responsibility for the appointment and removal of the Executive Directors.

The SID provides a sounding board for the Chair, acting as an intermediary for the other Directors when necessary. Our SID is available to shareholders should they have concerns that have not been addressed through the normal engagement channels.

The Charter of Expectations is reviewed annually to ensure it remains relevant and Accurately reflects the requirements of the Code, the Regulations and industry best practice.

Related documents

Charter of Expectations and Role Profiles (PDF - 264KB)
Diversity policy (PDF 66KB)

Board Committees

The Board is supported in its work by its Committees, each of which has its own Committee terms of reference, which clearly set out its remit and decision-making powers. The principal Committees of the Board and their core responsibilities can be found on our Committee page. This structure enables the Board to spend a significant proportion of its time focusing on the strategic direction of the Group.

Board effectiveness

We believe that an effective Board is one which delivers value for our four priority stakeholder groups – our customers and clients, colleagues, society and investors. We assess the effectiveness of our Board, its Committees and Board members annually.

This year’s Board Effectiveness Review specifically reviewed the effectiveness of the Board and Board Committee structure during the year, and the results of the review confirmed that our Board governance structure continues to deliver its intended benefits whilst respecting the spirit of the ring-fencing legislation in relation to decision-making affecting BBUKPLC.

You can read more about the 2021 process and our progress against the 2020 Board effectiveness review in the 2021 Annual Report.

As reported in our last Annual Report, we carried forward certain recommendations which had been partially addressed in light of disruption due to the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic. These included the following recommendations:

schedule fewer deep dives and allocate more time to each of them in 2021, to allow for increased discussion and debate, and facilitate deeper discussion of complex issues without significantly increasing demands on the Board’s time

increase input to the Board from outside Barclays on a wider range of issues

consider providing Board members with more opportunities to visit parts of the business in person (once COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions are lifted), to gain a broader understanding of the business and to help facilitate direct workforce engagement

add greater technology expertise to the Board, through greater external input or by looking to expand or adjust Board membership.

Whilst we made good progress against some of these recommendations, the ongoing restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the continued lack of opportunity for in-person engagement and informal interaction, made matters such as scheduling business site visits to facilitate greater business and colleague engagement challenging.

While good efforts have been made to provide opportunities for online engagement and our Chairman was able to travel to the US when the opportunity allowed, we hope that we will be able to enable more of these things in the year ahead.

As noted in further detail above, we are continuing to search for a suitable candidate with technology expertise, who also can contribute to the overall effectiveness and diversity of the Board.

The Board deep dives schedule provided the basis for a dynamic programme of strategic business reviews during 2021, and was updated throughout the year to take account of feedback from Board members and the Group’s strategic priorities, as well as key developments. During the course of the year, the Chairman continued to invest a significant amount of time with management developing the key questions for the Board’s consideration in the deep dive papers, and re-instituted an annual corporate strategy discussion which provides an important framework against which to set the deep dives, consolidates areas of strategic follow up, and which also provides opportunity for a more wide-ranging discussion regarding the challenges and opportunities for the business. Going into 2022, and with the Board now having considered the main business areas and strategic issues through the deep dives schedule, the Board has determined that it is now appropriate to revert to a more typical agenda cadence and approach to the consideration of strategy. Feedback from our 2021 Board Effectiveness Review also highlighted that there was merit in now refreshing these sessions.
The 2021 evaluation of the performance of the BPLC Board, Board Committees and individual Directors was externally facilitated, as required by the Code.

Further to a selection process facilitated by the Committee to identify a suitable external facilitator, which involved consideration of a number of potential facilitators, Christopher Saul Associates (CSA), an independent, external corporate governance advisory firm was chosen to facilitate the 2021 review.

CSA was chosen on the basis that it offered not only the relevant skills but also some prior knowledge of the Group in the context of past advisory roles of CSA and its Managing Director (as disclosed below), and thus the ability to provide more insightful feedback. CSA has no connection to the Group or any individual Director, save as disclosed below.

In 2017 to 2018 and February 2020, CSA was engaged by Barclays in an advisory capacity (alongside external legal counsel, Slaughter and May) in relation to certain legal and regulatory matters. From July 2019 to June 2021, CSA’s Managing Director, Christopher Saul, provided mentoring support to a current member of the ExCo. Whilst acting in his capacity as a partner at Slaughter and May (from which he retired in April 2016), Christopher Saul gave legal advice to Barclays in relation to certain corporate law related matters. CSA and Christopher Saul have no current advisory or mentoring engagements relating to Barclays, its Board or ExCo.

The Committee considered CSA’s independence prior to the firm’s appointment and was confident that, notwithstanding that CSA and Christopher Saul had previously advised Barclays as outlined above, CSA would not be constrained in its ability to express an independent view as the external facilitator of the 2021 Board, Board Committee and individual Director effectiveness evaluation.

The Boards of each of BBPLC, BBUKPLC and Barclays Bank Ireland PLC also elected to appoint CSA to undertake an independent, external evaluation of their effectiveness, and CSA’s review of the effectiveness of BBPLC’s Board, Board Committees and individual Directors was conducted in parallel with the BPLC review given the partially consolidated structure of the BPLC and BBPLC Boards.

As part of the BPLC and BBPLC review, CSA conducted a structured one-on-one interview process with each member of the Board, all members of ExCo, certain members of the BBPLC ExCo, and the lead audit engagement partner of the Group’s auditor, KPMG, to obtain feedback on the effectiveness of the Board, the Board Committees and individual directors throughout 2021. CSA also observed certain meetings of the Board and the Board Committees during September, October, November and December 2021. CSA issued its final reports on the findings of the effectiveness review to the Boards of BPLC and BBPLC in December 2021.

CSA’s feedback provides an important input into the further development of the performance and effectiveness of the Board, in particular in identifying areas in which the Board could be more effective.

Feedback from the review indicated that the Board is operating effectively and that the Board is collegiate, positive, professional and supportive, yet challenging, and benefits from a strong mix of skills and experience with contributions by all Directors during meetings despite restrictions on physical attendance as a result of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Meetings were considered to be well and inclusively chaired, including in hybrid format.

It was noted that the Board takes timely and well-informed decisions, and has a good understanding of the Group’s business. Constructive challenge of management by Non-Executive Directors was observed, noting significant positive development in the Board’s relationship with management which was observed as being constructive and respectful.

The size of the Board was considered to be effective, with a variety of skills and backgrounds. This enabled meaningful and stimulating diversity of thought and contribution, whilst acknowledging the potential benefits of appointing an additional Non-Executive Director with an understanding of digitally-led consumer-acing businesses. This would be given further consideration in the context of the current search for an additional Non-Executive Director with technology expertise. The Chairman’s inclusive and thoughtful style, and progress made in refreshing the Board, were recognised.

Board succession planning was observed as being very much front of mind for the Non-Executive Directors, and the transition following Venkat’s appointment as Group Chief Executive was seen to be progressing well.

Feedback from the review confirms that concurrent meetings of the BPLC and BBPLC Boards remain effective and work well in practice, with Board Committees operating effectively and being duly integrated into overall Board processes. In addition, the roles of Crawford Gillies, Diane Schueneman and Tim Breedon as the Chairs of BBUKPLC, BX and Barclays Bank Ireland PLC were felt to facilitate the sharing of additional perspectives relating to these significant subsidiaries.
The Committee has reviewed the Board Effectiveness Review report recommendations from CSA and will be giving further consideration to the implementation of the following matters during 2022:

whilst feedback indicated that Board deep dive sessions were generally appreciated by members, consideration should be given to how the approach to these sessions might be refreshed

since it had been necessary for the Board to devote a significant part of its agenda to immediate challenges and business strategy over the last two years through the COVID-19 pandemic, consideration should be given to how future Board agendas might be moved more towards important aspects of corporate strategy, including enhanced focus on capital allocation and issues presented by the external environment over the next three to five years

further consideration should be given to increasing input to the Board from thought leaders, customers and others to provide relevant outside perspectives

the process of making Board papers shorter and more focused should be continued. The Board has already taken action to address some of these recommendations, including – as outlined above – reverting to a more typical agenda cadence and approach to the consideration of strategy. The other items will be subject to further consideration and discussion through the course of this year.

Board Responsibilities

Roles on the Board

Board Committees

Board effectiveness

Important information