Financial Statements 2011 - Royal Holloway, University of London

Responsibilities and Membershipof the Council(continued)Reputation13 To safeguard the good name and value of the College.Chief Executive14 To appoint the Principal as chief executive, and to put in placesuitable arrangements for monitoring his/her performance.Secretary15 To appoint a secretary to the Council and to ensure that, if theperson appointed has managerial responsibilities in the College,there is an appropriate separation in the lines of accountability.Employer16 To be the employing authority of the College and to beresponsible for establishing a personnel strategy and overallsuperannuation policy.Health & Safety17 To have ultimate responsibility for the health and safety of allstaff, students and visitors (including the general public) oncampus and its immediate environs).Equal Opportunities18 To ensure that all the business of the College is conductedwithout discriminating against any member of staff, studentor visitor on grounds of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexualorientation, marital or parental status, national origin, age ordisability.Finance19 To be the principal financial and business authority of theCollege, to ensure that proper books of accounts are kept, toapprove the annual budget and financial statements and tohave overall responsibility for the College’s assets, property andestate and investment policy.Legal20 To be the College’s legal authority and, as such, to ensurethat systems are in place for meeting all the College’s legalobligations, including those arising from contracts and otherlegal commitments made in the College’s name.Students21 To make such provision as it thinks fit for the general welfare ofstudents, in consultation with the Academic Board.22 To review and approve the constitution of the Students’ Unionat least every five years and to monitor its financial position.23 Under Section 20 of the RHBNCA, to terminate theregistration of students on non-academic grounds or to takedisciplinary action, where appropriate, against students forsevere breaches of disciplinary regulations. The power toterminate a registration on academic grounds rests with theAcademic Board.Trustees24 To act as trustee for any property, legal endowment, bequest orgift, such as the Picture Collection, the Founder’s EndowmentFund, the Bedford Entrance Scholarships and a number of othersmall charitable funds, in support of the work and welfare ofthe College.Governance25 To ensure that the College’s constitution is followed at alltimes and that appropriate advice is available to enable thisto happen.Financial Statements and Accounting RecordsThe Council is responsible for keeping proper accounting recordswhich disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financialposition of the College and enable it to ensure that the financialstatements are prepared in accordance with the College’s Statutes,the Statement of Recommended Practice on Accounting in HigherEducation Institutions and UK Generally Accepted AccountingPractice (UK GAAP). In addition, within the terms and conditions ofthe Financial Memorandum agreed between the Higher EducationFunding Council for England, “the Funding Council” and theCouncil of the College, the Council through its designated officeholder, is required to prepare financial statements for each financialyear which give a true and fair view, in accordance with UK GAAP,of the state of affairs of the College and of the surplus or deficitand cash flows for that year.In causing the financial statements to be prepared, the Council hasensured that:-• suitable accounting policies are selected and appliedconsistently;• judgements and estimates are made that are reasonableand prudent;• applicable UK accounting standards have been followed; and• financial statements are prepared on the going concern basis.The Council is satisfied that the College has adequate resourcesto continue in operation for the foreseeable future. For thisreason the going concern basis continues to be adopted in thepreparation of the financial statements.The Council has taken reasonable steps to:-• ensure that funds from the Higher Education Funding Councilfor England are used only for purposes for which they havebeen given and in accordance with the Financial Memorandumwith the Funding Council and any other conditions which theFunding Council may from time to time prescribe;• ensure management controls in place to safeguard public fundsand funds from other sources;• safeguard the assets of the College and to prevent and detectfraud and other irregularities;• secure the economical, efficient and effective management ofthe College’s resources and expenditure.10