NON-EXECUTIVE APPTS TO THE COURT OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND

21 May 2003 12:15 PM

The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of Brendan Barber, the Hon. Peter Jay, Dr David Potter CBE and Heather Rabbatts CBE as non- executive Directors on the Court of the Bank of England.

The Queen has also been pleased to approve the reappointment of Sir Brian Moffat OBE and Bill Morris.

All non-executives serve in a personal capacity, but bring particular experience to the Court's deliberations.

NOTES TO EDITORS
1. All appointments have been made in accordance with the guidance issued by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. They will run from 1 June 2003 until 31 May 2006.

2. The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom. It is governed by a Court (Board) of Directors, which oversees the operation of the Bank as a publicly owned corporation, except the Bank's monetary policy decision-making, which is the responsibility of a separately-appointed Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

3. The Bank of England Act 1998 gives the non-executive directors an explicit role in overseeing and reporting on the Bank's performance. The Act created a sub-committee of directors with statutory responsibilities for keeping the Bank's performance under review. All of the non-executive directors are members of this committee, and one of their number is appointed by the Chancellor to chair it. The current chair is Sir David Cooksey.

4. The Act also places great emphasis on accountability and transparency, in the context both of the monetary policy process and of the Bank's operations and finances. The Court is responsible for the Bank's published accounts and members of Court may be called to give evidence about the Bank before Parliamentary Committees.

5. The membership of the Court at present is: Sir Edward George, Mervyn King, Sir Andrew Large, Roy Bailie, Bridget Blow, Sir John Bond, Sir David Cooksey, Sir Howard Davies, Mary Francis, Sir Ian Gibson, Sir Graham Hall, Dr DeAnne Julius, Dame Sheila McKechnie, Sir Brian Moffat, Bill Morris, John Neill, Kathleen O'Donovan, Laurel Powers-Freeling and James Stretton.

6. The expiry date of the term of appointments of Roy Bailie, Dame Sheila McKechnie, John Neill and James Stretton is 31 May 2003. They are being replaced by Brendan Barber, Peter Jay, David Potter and Heather Rabbatts. The appointments are for three-year renewable terms, with remuneration of £5,000 per year.

7. Brendan Barber is Deputy General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress. As of 1 June 2003 he will become General Secretary. Peter Jay was formerly Economics Editor at the BBC and was previously Her Majesty's Ambassador to the USA. David Potter is Chairman and founder of Psion PLC. Heather Rabbatts is Managing Director at Channel 4/4Learning, as well as co-chair of the IMPOWER Group PLC and a governor of the London School of Economics.

8. David Potter is a board member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, for which he receives remuneration of £4,000 per annum, and is also a member of the Council for Science and Technology, for which he does not receive remuneration. Brendan Barber, Peter Jay, Sir Brian Moffat, Bill Morris and Heather Rabbatts hold no other ministerial appointments.

9. Within the last five years Brendan Barber has participated in local branch activity and canvassed at election time for the Labour Party, Bill Morris has chaired the National Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Committee, and David Potter has made a recordable donation to the Labour Party. Peter Jay, Sir Brian Moffat and Heather Rabbatts have conducted no recorded political activity within the last five years.

10. The first meeting of Court for the new members to attend will be in June. This will also see the last meetings of Court and the MPC before Sir Edward George retires as Governor. In the same month Mervyn King will attend MPC for the last time in his capacity as Deputy Governor with responsibility for monetary stability, before becoming Governor on 1 July. Rachel Lomax will attend July's meeting of the MPC for the first time as the new Deputy Governor for monetary stability.

11. Further details on Court can be found on the Bank of England's website.