Estates and Infrastructure Committee

Terms of Reference and Constitution

Governance reporting line: Council
Document owner: Governance Services

1. Origin

• The Council has established a committee of Council known as the Estates and Infrastructure Committee.

2. Purpose

• The purpose of the Estates and Infrastructure Committee (EIC) of Council is to provide governance oversight and advice to Council concerning major capital and associated projects, and on long term strategy for infrastructure and assets.

3. Responsibilities and activity

• The Estates and Infrastructure Committee (EIC), chaired by a lay member of Council, is responsible for governance oversight and scrutiny of major estates projects and major infrastructure projects (including but not exclusively, digital), as well as providing advice and recommendations to Finance Committee and Council concerning approvals for major projects.
• For the purposes of the EIC, “major” will include any programme or project of consolidated spend in excess of £25m (being the threshold for Council approval), or which the Chair of EIC considers has significant strategic, operational or reputational impact on the University.  The Chair of EIC will be advised of:
  • all projects within an approved programme with spend in excess of £5m
  • all projects not within an approved budget with spend in excess of £2.5m (being the threshold for Finance Committee approval) noting that a major digital project is likely to in the £1m - £10m range.
• The responsibilities of the EIC include:
  • (a) Scrutinising and recommending estates, digital and infrastructure strategic proposals to Council, including overall Master Planning of our campuses
  • (b) Reviewing the Estates Programme prioritisation, fit to strategic objectives and overall cost
  • (c) Reviewing the digital infrastructure and IT Programme prioritisation, fit to strategic objectives and overall cost
  • (d) In the context of these Programmes, scrutinising the development of business cases for major estates, digital and infrastructure projects in respect of fit to strategic objectives, including the University’s sustainability ambitions, and value, as developed and recommended by EPB and ITPB, for recommendation to Finance Committee for financial evaluation prior to Council decision
  • (e) In all of the above the EIC will take account of information concerning the likely impact on students and of the best available information on students’ views and our academic community
  • (f) Reviewing progress reports on major projects from ITPB and EPB
  • (g) Advising Council on relevant engagement with authorities and other stakeholders, to meet our “civic university” aspirations in respect of estates, digital and infrastructure programmes
  • (h) Reviewing performance in respect of relevant KPIs, benchmarks, sector standards and associated University strategic objectives (notably but not exclusively, Sustainability, Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity
• The Committee will ensure that it is fit for purpose by performing an effectiveness review every four years.
• The Committee will review its own Terms of Reference annually at the last meeting of the academic year.

4. Reporting arrangements

• The EIC is accountable to the Council.
• The Estates Programme Board (EPB) and the IT Strategic Programme Board (ITSPB) report regularly to EIC.  EPB and ITSPB have delegated authority for monitoring on individual projects and they will each provide a regular Programme-level summary report to EIC.

5. Constitution

5.1 Membership

Members of the EIC are appointed by the Nominations and Governance Committee.

The Committee shall comprise:

• Three lay members of Council, one of whom shall be Chair
• One Senate or non-teaching member of Council
• Chair of Council (ex-officio)
• President & Vice Chancellor (ex-officio)
• President of the Students’ Union
• Two external members appointed for their expertise in IT/Digital and Estates/Property
• Chair of Estates Programme Board
• Chair of IT Strategic Programme Board

5.2 Attendance at meetings

The following shall normally be in attendance at EIC meetings:

• Executive Director of Finance
• Deputy Vice-President (Operations)
• Executive Director of Estates & Facilities
• Chief Digital & Information Officer
• Vice-President (Operations)
• Executive Director of Governance, Legal Services, Risk and Resilience
• Director of Estates Development
• Governance Services

Current membership is set out in the Annex to these Terms of Reference.

6. Quorum and frequency

6.1 Quorum

• The quorum shall be not less than one third of the total number of members, plus one member.

6.2 Frequency of meetings

• The Committee normally meets four times a year. 

7. Resources 

• Secretariat support is provided by Governance Services.

8. Terms of Reference review

Date of last review: June 2025
Date of next review: June 2026

Annex