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UCL Council Register of Interests - Background

Purpose

The purpose of the UCL Council's Register of Interests shall be to ensure that Members of the Council and UCL Officers in attendance at Council meetings are able to exercise independent judgment on issues of strategy, performance, resources and standards of conduct which may be considered by the Council, and are not influenced in the consideration of such issues by prejudice, bias or conflicts of interests.

Interpretation

The UCL Council shall authorise Members of the Council and the UCL Officers concerned to exercise their personal judgment to determine what constitutes a substantive and material interest in this context and what interests it shall be appropriate for them to declare for inclusion in the Register.

Scope

Subject to the foregoing paragraph [Interpretation], the range of interests covered in the Register shall normally include an individual's main occupation and employment or self-employment (but not remuneration); directorships, partnerships or controlling shareholdings; and membership of governing bodies or other public bodies.

Application

The Register shall cover the interests of all current members of the UCL Council and all UCL Officers currently authorised to attend meetings of the Council as a matter of course.

In respect of the UCL Officers and Council Members who are also staff of UCL, the Register shall apply in conjunction with the following provisions of the Financial Regulations of UCL:

139. All staff shall declare to the Director of Finance:

i any significant share holding or material interest which they have in a business which may (or does) supply or trade with UCL;

ii any matter which might reasonably be deemed by others to encroach on impartiality;

iii any personal, financial or other beneficial interest an individual, including a close relative or partner, may have in any financial arrangement or transaction with UCL.

140. The Director of Finance shall maintain a register of disclosures of interest.

The Secretary to Council shall write before 1 October each year to (i) all persons expected to serve as Members of Council for the coming year (1 October-30 September) and (ii) all UCL Officers authorised to attend Council meetings in the coming year, inviting them to indicate interests to be included in the Register. The Secretary to Council shall write before 1 October each year to submit the Register to the Provost, then to the Chair of Council, for endorsement and approval respectively on behalf of the Council.

The Register shall be effective from 1 October to 30 September of the following year. Members of Council and the UCL Officers concerned shall be expected to notify to the Secretary to Council any changes required to their current entry in the Register during the year.

Access

At its meeting on 11 December 1997 Council resolved that the information contained in the Register of Interests not be designated confidential to Council or to UCL. Council agreed that the information in the Register should be accessible to interested parties inside and outside UCL.

The Secretary to Council shall be responsible for the safe keeping of the Register. The Register for the period 1 October 2012 to 30 September 2013 is here.

Declaration of interest at meetings of Council and committees of UCL

Any Council Member or any UCL Officer authorised to attend Council meetings who has a pecuniary, family, business or other personal interest in any matters under discussion, whether at meetings of Council or at meetings of standing committees or sub-committees established by Council of which he or she is a member or which he or she attends, shall be expected to declare such interest.

Subject to the discretion of the Chair, it shall be for the individual Council Member or UCL Officer concerned to determine whether, having declared such interest, he or she should leave the meeting before commencement of the discussion of business in which he or she has declared such interest.

Subject to the discretion of the Chair, the individual Council Member or UCL Officer concerned shall not normally take part in consideration of business in which he or she has declared such interest.