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What does the committee do?

What does the committee do?

It provides advice on the accounting policies, accounts and annual report to ensure they reflect best practice.

It reviews and comments on reports by the National Audit Office, or the appointed external auditor, and evaluates the effectiveness of anti-fraud and bribery policies, whistleblowing processes, and arrangements for special investigations.

The committee decides the scope and remit of internal audit work and advises on the long-term audit programme. It assess and advises on how well the organisation’s performance management framework enables us to manage and improve the delivery of our functions. The committee receives and reviews also formally the annual health and safety report.

Meet the members

Paul Roberts

Paul Roberts OBE

Chair, Performance and Audit Committee and Chair, Remuneration Committee
After a career involving Director of Education posts in Nottingham and London and the post of Managing Director of the Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government, Paul is now Chair of the Board of Directors for the Innovation Unit.
He has been a trustee at Nottingham Contemporary and Mountview Drama School, Chair of Nottingham Music Education Hub, a member of the ABRSM Music Commission, of the Warwick Commission on Cultural Value as well as the Durham Commission on Creativity and Education.

Paul produced the government report “Nurturing Creativity in Young People” in 2008 and was joint author of “The Virtuous Circle – why creativity and cultural education count”. Paul is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and was awarded an OBE in 2008 for services to Education and the Creative Industries.

He was appointed to the National Council of Arts Council England in December 2017 where he is also chair of the Performance and Audit Committee.

Term of appointment: 1 December 2017 – 30 November 2024
A headshot of Helen Bircenough

Helen Birchenough

South West Area Chair
Trustee of Wiltshire Creative, Non-executive director of Messums Wiltshire
Helen has been involved in the arts and education in Wiltshire for twenty years. She was Chair of both the Salisbury Playhouse and Salisbury International Arts Festival and led the Festival into merger with the theatre and Salisbury Arts Centre to become the new pan-arts organisation that is Wiltshire Creative.
She is a trustee of Wiltshire Creative.

Driven by the power of the arts and education to change lives, Helen is a strong believer in the importance of further education and vocational training. She was Chair of Wiltshire College for five years, leading the College through a period of transformational change.

Helen has also chaired the education panel at Wiltshire Community Foundation, giving grants to young people to access educational resources and services and bursaries to those who could not otherwise go to university. She is also a Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire.

She is a non-executive director of Messums Wiltshire, a pioneering multi-purpose gallery and art centre in a fourteenth century tithe barn in Tisbury.

Helen represents National Council on the Cultural Gifts Scheme and Acceptance in Lieu Panel.

Term of appointment: 05 December 2018 - 04 December 2026.
Clive Parritt

Clive Parritt

After a brief career as an actor, Clive sought more security and trained as a chartered accountant. He became a partner in Touche Ross, now Deloitte, before joining Baker Tilly (now RSM) becoming the National Managing Partner in1986 and then Chairman from 1996 until 2001.
He was also able to maintain his interest in theatre and the performing arts by working extensively for the creative industries and the people involved in them.

With considerable experience of providing strategic, financial and commercial advice to growing businesses he has chaired Boards and Audit Committees for companies of all sizes – listed and private. Clive has extensive experience as an executive and non-executive director of private and public companies. He served as President of the ICAEW 2011-2012.

He continues to be involved with a number of businesses including as consultant to Audiotonix Ltd, a world-leading manufacturer of sound mixing consoles where he spent 10 years as Group CFO.

Term of appointment: 13 September 2018 – 12 September 2024
Abigail Pogson

Abigail Pogson

National Council Member
Abigail was born and grew up in Yorkshire. She has been Managing Director of Sage Gateshead since May 2015. She combines a commitment to developing artists and supporting them to create great work with a passion for ensuring that the arts can be accessed by as many people as possible.

Following a degree in Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge University and an MA in Cultural Management at City University, she began working in the arts.
She joined Sage Gateshead from Spitalfields Music, a charity based in east London with an international reputation for its quality, reach and innovation. She previously worked at English National Opera, Music Theatre Wales and SPNM. In 2007/8 she was a Fellow on the Clore Leadership Programme.

Abigail serves as a Trustee for V&A Dundee, as a Director for North East England Chamber of Commerce and as Chair of Sunderland Empire Theatre Trust.

Term of appointment: 15 May 2022 – 14 May 2026.
A portrait of Tracy Staines

Tracy Staines

Tracy Staines is a seasoned executive with a significant track record in leading and driving strategic organizational change in the not-for-profit, public and private sectors. She brings over 23 years of multi-sectoral experience in audit and risk management, including ten years driving and leading change at the Global Fund. She led the Audit Unit between 2015-2020 and was appointed as Inspector General by the Global Fund Board in December 2020 with responsibility for 57 FTE.
Prior to joining the Global Fund, Tracy led audit and investigations teams at one of Europe’s largest banks and the UK Civil Service. She began her career with Deloitte, the largest professional services firm in the world, in London and Sydney.

She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, a Chartered Internal Auditor and a qualified member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments.

Tracy currently holds two non-executive positions in the public and not-for-profit sectors.

Term of appointment: 13 September 2018 – 12 September 2024
Headshot of a man

Guillaume Fleuti

Guillaume Fleuti, a Swiss citizen, started his career in Banking in 2000 after he obtained a degree in Finance at HEC Lausanne (Switzerland) and a MSc in Finance at Leicester University. He joined the Debt Capital Markets (‘DCM’) division of UBS, initially in Zurich and was transferred to London in 2005. He then moved to Goldman Sachs in 2006 and was hired as Director by Lloyds Bank to build its DCM franchise.
Guillaume then became responsible for the infrastructure group in 2013 and became Managing Director in 2015. He added responsibility for the European business of Lloyds Bank in 2019 and the Transport and Industrials sectors.

In 2021 he joined NatWest as Managing Director for the Coverage & Sector Content team in the Commercial & Institutional division. Guillaume is married to Flavie and has two sons, Hadrien (13) and Edouard (11). In his spare time Guillaume has a passion for scuba diving and is a keen diver, which he practices regularly with his children.

Term of appointment: 19 May 2022 - 18 May 2025
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Penny Ciniewicz

Penny spent the first 12 years of her working life as a theatre director and administrator and has since spent more than twenty years in the civil service, including latterly leading the larger part of HMRC’s operational staff as Director General, Customer Compliance in HMRC’s senior executive team. Prior to that she was Chief Executive and Accounting Officer of the Valuation Office Agency, one of the largest arm’s length bodies in government.
She has also worked in Cabinet Office, as Principle Private Secretary to two Cabinet Secretaries, and in the Department for Trade & Industry

Term of appointment 10 November 2021 – 9 November 2024
A portrait of a Caucasian man

Bill Bush

National Council Member
During Bill’s 17 years at the Premier League, as Executive Director and now Senior Adviser, he has led areas including intellectual property, public policy, relations with government and the EU, relations with fans, communications and the community programme.

He is currently the Chair of the Alliance for Intellectual Property, Board member of English Touring Opera, and Board member of the Football Foundation.

Before joining the Premier League, Bill worked as a Special Advisor to the Prime
Minister (1999-2001) and to Tessa Jowell at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (2001-2005), and was Head of Research for BBC News 1991-1999. Early in his career, as a local government officer he ran the Office of the Leader of the Greater London Council (Ken Livingstone) from 1981-1986.

Term of appointment: 15 May 2022 – 14 May 2025.