Act as shareholder for, and lead establishment of, UK government arm’s length bodies
The UKGI governance team has deep Board, governance, commercial and financial expertise drawn from both inside and outside government. We support HMG’s effective ownership of its arm’s length bodies (ALBs), enhancing Departments’ ability to effectively discharge their responsibilities in relation to their ALBs and promoting those assets’ successful organisational performance. This includes taking a proactive shareholder role, sharing best practice advice on setting up new ALBs, undertaking governance reviews and providing shareholder function scoping and design workshops.
In accordance with Managing Public Money (MPM), departments are encouraged to seek UKGI’s advice for managing departments’ responsibilities as shareholders, and also when establishing central government companies, public corporations or ALB’s which have a significant commercial element, significant private sector interface and/or whose governance is of material complexity.
Publications
The UK Stewardship Code published by the Financial Reporting Council sets high expectations of those investing money on behalf of UK savers and pensioners. UKGI’s report sets out how we meet the Principles for service providers by providing effective stewardship to our portfolio of assets, acting on behalf of Departments.
UKGI Stewardship Code Response
10 March 2022 5 MB
UKGI paper on the use of ALBs in government: a view from practitioners
A key part of UKGI’s mission is to support departments across Whitehall to be most effective in their role as shareholders of arm’s length bodies. In this paper, published in 2020, we have drawn on our expertise across both the public and private sectors to identify how, where and why arm’s length bodies are used by government, and to define seven critical success factors for setting up and managing them. The paper is intended to help inform debate across Whitehall and beyond on the effective use of arm’s length bodies for specialised delivery, as well as to share practical know-how and expertise in this area.
Jamie Carter
Director
Jamie Carter is a Director at UK Government Investments whose responsibilities include overseeing the British Business Bank on behalf of its Shareholder, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. He has substantial experience in corporate governance and also sits on the board of The Royal Mint.
Prior to UKGI, Jamie spent more than 10 years at HM Treasury where he specialised in public spending, including being involved in several spending reviews and leading the HMT oversight of major transport investments. During this period, Jamie took a 2-year career break to work as a Governance Specialist at the World Bank based in Jakarta.
Andy Butterworth
Executive Director
Andy joined UKGI in December 2016 and is part of the Special Situations team which focuses on sectors and corporates where there is a risk of economic shock impact to major employment or assets of national interest. Andy is a FCA and prior to joining UKGI was an M&A Director at Deloitte specialising in advising on non-standard and accelerated M&A transactions, many of which involved advising companies, investors and lenders on maximising value in constrained, challenging or time-critical situations. Whilst at UKGI, Andy has also worked within UKGI’s housing activities with MHCLG, delivered a number of projects with the UKGI Defence team and led UKGI’s team working on UK Export Finance. Andy also led on UKGI’s portfolio management activities.
Roshana Arasaratnam
Executive Director
Roshana joined UKGI in June 2022 having worked across capital markets, public sector and not for profits over the last 20 years, most recently as Associate Managing Director at Moody’s Investor Services where she has led ratings teams across Europe.
Before Moody’s, Roshana led finance, business planning and performance improvement initiatives in local government, having trained as a chartered accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In addition, she tutors in Sustainable Finance at the Cambridge Institute of Sustainable Leadership, is a member of the ICAEW Sustainability Committee, is a Trustee at Womankind Worldwide, mentors startups at Cass Business School and is a diversity mentor for BT.
James Coppin OBE
Executive Director
James joined UK Government Investments (formerly the Shareholder Executive) in March 2014. He has worked on a variety of corporate finance and governance projects, including government investments into industry and government asset sales. Major government sales worked on include the two public equity offerings of Royal Mail shares that removed Royal Mail from public sector ownership and advising the Department for Transport on Network Rail’s sale of c. 5,000 railway arches. He has recently been advising the Department of Health and Social Care on transactions relating to the provision of indemnity cover for GPs and working with the UK’s Vaccine Task Force on negotiating agreements with vaccine manufacturers to secure vaccines and manufacturing capacity as part of the UK’s response to Covid-19.
Prior to joining UKGI, James spent ten years working in corporate finance, first on the sell side in investment banking and, immediately prior to joining UKGI, on the buy side, at a hedge fund. He started his career at Bank of America, working in London and New York.
James holds an Economics degree from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.
Our work
The public sector and state owned enterprises, wholly or partially owned, which UKGI works with are:
Delivering a shareholder function which seeks to drive continuously improving and sustainable asset performance can include:
The British Business Bank is a government owned business development bank dedicated to making financial markets work better for small businesses.
Channel 4 is a commercially funded public sector broadcaster it operates a portfolio of channels including channel 4.
HM Land Registry registers the ownership of land and property in England and Wales and is a non-ministerial department.
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) ensures the safe and efficient clean-up of the UK’s nuclear legacy. NDA is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, supported by 5 agencies and public bodies.
National Nuclear Laboratory ‘s purpose is to serve the national interest and create value for customers by pushing the boundaries of science, technology and innovation.
The Post office is the UK’s largest retail network and the largest financial services chain in the UK with more branches than all of the UK’s banks and building societies put together.
Ordnance Survey’s aim is to provide mapping that informs, guides and inspires. Its vision is to reveal our ever-changing landscape in extraordinary detail, giving the most comprehensive view of Britain.
Natwest Group is a UK-based financial services company, head-quartered in Edinburgh. NatWest Group provides a wide range of products and services to personal, commercial and large corporate and institutional customers through its two main subsidiaries, NatWest and The Royal Bank of Scotland, as well as through a number of other well-known brands including Ulster Bank and Coutts.
The Royal Mint is the world’s leading export mint, making coins and medals for an average of 60 countries every year. However, its first responsibility is to make and distribute United Kingdom coins as well as to supply blanks and official medals.
UK Export Finance is the UK’s export credit agency and a government department . It works with 70 private credit insurers and lenders to help UK companies access export finance.
UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) was established on 1 October 2010 to facilitate the orderly management of the closed mortgage books of both Bradford & Bingley and NRAM.
URENCO is an international supplier of enrichment services and fuel cycle products. With plants in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and in the USA, it operates in a pivotal area of the nuclear fuel supply chain which enables the sustainable generation of electricity for consumers around the world. The URENCO Group provides safe, cost effective and reliable uranium enrichment services for civil power generation within a framework of high environmental, social and corporate responsibility standards.
OneWeb is a global communications network, acquired by the UK Government and the Bharti Group in November 2020. Its goal is to provide an affordable, fast, high bandwidth, low-latency global communications service, powered by a constellation of 650 Low Earth Orbit satellites.
Reclaim Fund Ltd (RFL) is the UK’s operator of the Dormant Assets Scheme. Working with the financial services industry, RFL facilitates the transfer of dormant asset monies into the Scheme ensuring the original owner’s right to reclaim and distributing the surplus funds (amounts in excess of what is required to meet future reclaims), to social and environmental initiatives across the UK.
AWE plays a crucial role in nuclear defence, providing the warheads for the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
The UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) is the new, government-owned policy bank, focused on increasing infrastructure investment across the United Kingdom. It will partner with the private sector and local government to finance a green industrial revolution and drive growth across the country.
- Governance structure and documentation: Driving accountability and effective shareholder relationships by working with assets and departments to put in place best practice and fit for purpose corporate and government governance frameworks
- Objectives, business planning and performance: Supporting and challenging assets to produce fit for purpose business plans, performance metrics and reporting, and so drive increased accountability and improved planning between assets and HMG
- Corporate capability: Challenging and monitoring our assets’ internal systems and processes to help identify and mitigate risk and promote best practice internal governance, culture and organisational health
- Effective leadership: Applying senior corporate expertise to influence ALB recruitment and remuneration processes, board reviews and succession planning to help shape strong and fit for purpose capability in our assets’ boards and senior executive
- Effective relationships: Facilitating effective, pragmatic and transparent relationships between our assets and government, through formal and informal, senior-led, regular interactions
- Experienced Shareholder Non-Executive Director: Acting as Shareholder NED, contributing deep governance and government expertise to our assets’ boards, and facilitating the relationship and understanding between asset boards and their departments
Case Studies
HM Land Registry (HMLR)
UKGI performs the shareholder role on behalf of BEIS in relation to HMLR. HMLR plays a key role in the UK’s economic stability, security and growth. Its registers and the guarantees afforded by them underpin £7 trillion in property assets across England and Wales, with £1-1.5 trillion in lending secured against it. The Land Register, a piece of Critical National Infrastructure, contains more than 26 million titles, providing financial and economic security across the UK.
UKGI provides strategic oversight of HMLR’s corporate governance and corporate performance, working closely with and reporting directly to BEIS senior officials and BEIS Ministers.
For example, in 2020 UKGI was responsible for advising on the appointment of non-executive members to HMLR’s Board. In practical terms, this involved leading the recruitment campaign for new non-executive Board members, engaging closely with both HMLR and BEIS throughout the process and advising BEIS Ministers for a decision. This led to the appointment of two new independent non-executive directors who strengthen the Board in terms of experience and capabilities and providing support for management to execute HMLR’s business strategy.
The Royal Mint
UK Government Investments acts as shareholder on behalf of HMT Ministers in relation to Government’s 100% shareholdings in The Royal Mint. The Royal Mint’s primary purpose is to manufacture and distribute coins for the UK, as well as to supply blanks and official medals. Since 2010, They have operated on a fully commercial basis providing goods and services to HMT via the UK Coin contract.
We discharge our role primarily through membership of the Board and certain of its committees, working with HMT and The Royal Mint to better align the governance structure with the government’s objectives for the Mint as well as further developing the medium-term strategy to remain a profitable business despite the long-term decline in cash usage.
With regards to COVID-19, the UKGI team supported The Royal Mint in its options to keep the business open and provided steers on Government support packages that are available. We are pleased to note that The Royal Mint used its engineering expertise to create and manufacture medical visors to help protect frontline care workers in the NHS.
UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB)
On behalf of HM Treasury, UKGI acts as shareholder for the UK Infrastructure Bank. The UK Infrastructure Bank exists to help tackle climate change and support regional and local economic growth.
Since taking on the shareholder role in May 2021 we have been successfully establishing the core building blocks to effectively carry out the shareholder representative role, utilising our existing ALB set-up experience from organisations such as Green Investment Bank and British Business Bank to support HMT.
Over the last year some of our key achievements have included establishing regular monitoring and reporting through Quarterly Shareholder Meetings. UKGI played a key role in the preparation and execution of the UK Infrastructure Bank’s Financial Framework Document and related financial set-up aspects which underpins the Bank’s £7billion borrowing and £5billion equity facility. Working closely with HM Treasury and the UK Infrastructure Bank Chair, UKGI continues to build effective leadership at the Bank through establishing the Bank’s Board including recently appointing four Non-Executive Directors with the required expertise to enable UKIB to deliver the Bank’s objectives