Date: 19 February 2026

Time: 14:00

Venue: MS Teams

Present—

•  Ed Pybus (Chair of Audit Sub-Committee)
• Judith Paterson (Audit Sub-Committee Member)
• Adam Bennett (Audit Sub-Committee Member)

In attendance—

• Stephen Herbert, Secretary, SCoSS;
• Lisa Kinnear, Governance and Engagement Officer; SCoSS.

Ed Pybus welcomed the attendees to the first Governance Sub-Committee meeting of 2026.

No interests were declared.

The Minutes of the November 2025 meeting of the Audit Sub-Committee were agreed.

Stephen Herbert spoke to the content of this agenda item and provided an update on finance and governance primarily with regard to the financial position of the Commission in the current financial year where expenditure is forecast to be within budget. The Sub-Committee noted that assurances had been received from Sponsor Unit with regard to finance support arrangements in the new financial year following the closure of Programme Finance.

The Governance Sub-Committee noted the finance and governance update.

Lisa Kinnear noted that the risk register was reviewed at the November Board meeting, at which it was agreed that a new risk regarding the closure of Programme Finance at end of December 2025, be added to the risk register. The Board noted that the description of the controls in place had been updated in the risk register to reflect the latest position for this risk.

The Secretariat proposed that a risk relating to the transition to Oracle Cloud is removed from the risk register as the transition had now completed and any issues arising from the transition have now been addressed.

The Governance Sub-Committee agreed the revised risk register.

Lisa Kinnear provided the Board with an overview of the process used for dealing with Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and an update on FOI requests received over the last 6 months.

The Board noted the process for dealing with FOI requests and the responses to recent requests received.

The Sub-Committee noted that they discussed priorities for inclusion in the 2026-27 business plan at the January Board meeting. The Sub-Committee considered the draft 2026-27 business on a page-by-page basis.

The Sub-Committee amended and agreed a revised version of the business plan for consideration at the February Board meeting.

The Sub-Committee considered the purpose and remit of the Governance Sub-Committee and agreed to review the work of the Sub-Committee after its first year of operation.

It was agreed to invite officials from the SCoSS Sponsor Unit to the next meeting of the Sub-Committee.

Meeting closed at 15:17