
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.

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- Changes relating to capital structure or status as a PLC
- Approval of annual capital plan
- Approval of risk appetite and liquidity risk appetite
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- Approval of interim and final financial statements, dividends and any significant change in accounting policies or practices
- Any share dividend alternative
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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.
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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.
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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.