NERC's internal scheme of delegation
Government consultations/parliamentary inquiries
Council retains the responsibility of signing-off its responses to certain government consultations and parliamentary inquiries rather than automatically delegating all these to the Chief Executive.
Some examples of government consultations and parliamentary inquiries to which Council gave a response are:
- House of Commons Science & Technology Committee scrutiny of NERC
- House of Commons science and technology inquiry into research council institutes
- DTI innovation review/Lambert review
- White paper inputs on energy and higher education funding
- Science and innovation investment framework 2004-2014: next steps document
However, the vast majority of government consultations and parliamentary inquiries are managed with the Chief Executive or the Director of Strategy & Partnerships making the final decisions. When necessary, they take advice from the NERC Executive Board (NEB) on whether to respond to government consultations and parliamentary inquiries, what that response should be and whether Council would wish to have some input or sign off the response.
Example
Science & Innovation Investment Framework 2004-2014: next steps document
NEB provided advice to the Chief Executive about the proposals in the consultation and NERC's view on them. The Chief Executive also had the opportunity to consider the wider cross-council issues through his involvement with other research council chief executives on the RCUK Executive Group. The Chief Executive then consulted Council about the proposed response and received endorsement from the Council Chair before it was submitted.
External environment: Government consultations
/ Parliamentary inquiries 