Serving the nation’s dreams

Camelot maintains close links with its five shareholders through its Board structure. We use our robust governance structures to ensure our values are integrated and brought to life.

Our Board is chaired by Sir Peter Middleton, who sits alongside three Non-Executive Directors who are not linked to our shareholders. Each of our five shareholders also appoints a Non-Executive to the Board and there are three Executive Directors.

Our non-shareholder appointed Non-Executive Directors are carefully chosen through a selection process involving executive search consultants to make sure our Executive Team is challenged in a rigorous way.

The five shareholder appointed Non-Executives, who are all senior Executives for the shareholder companies they represent, bring a breadth of experience to the Board. . Independent Non-Executives, including the Chairman, are carefully recruited through a selection process involving external consultants – in accordance with clearly-defined role specifications. They ensure that our Executive Team is challenged in a rigorous way and are appointed initially for a three-year term, generally renewable for two further terms of three years.

The three main Board committees, all chaired by non-executive directors, work to terms of reference agreed by the Board, They are:

• Audit, Risk and Security Committee (AR&SC).
• Remuneration Committee, which sets a framework for executive directors’ remuneration.
• Nominations Committee, which selects candidates to fill Board vacancies.

Additionally, the Advisory Panel for Corporate Responsibility reports into the Board via its chair, who is a non-executive director and the Deputy Chairman of Camelot’s Board.

Even though we are not a publicly listed company, we aim to comply with the principles of corporate governance best practice.

Regulation and compliance

We are regulated by the National Lottery Commission (NLC), which sets the terms of our Licence and other regulatory requirements. The NLC has wide-ranging powers and can question any aspect of our operation of the lottery. To assist them with their work, we provide the NLC’s Compliance Division with office space at our Watford headquarters.

Any compliance failings can have a detrimental impact on the reputation and integrity of the lottery, damaging sales and returns to the Good Causes. To mitigate this, a full regulation and compliance report is made to every AR&SC. During 2007/08, the Director for Regulation and Governance continued to take ultimate responsibility for our relationship with the regulator, and made regular reports to each AR&SC and Board meeting to inform all Board members of any matters regarding regulatory compliance. In a reorganisation of the Camelot’s senior management, announced in October, this role will in future be fulfilled by a dedicated Propriety Director who will attend all AR&SC meetings.

We stay in close touch with the NLC through regular meetings. Our Chief Executive and her NLC counterpart meet monthly and they also attend regular meetings alongside our Chairman and the NLC’s Chairman of Commissioners. Our Directors of Regulation & Governance, IT and Business Assurance and Security also meet with the relevant NLC Directors and staff.

We are committed to ensuring that all staff understand what is expected of them in terms of ethical conduct. To this aim, we encourage them to complete training on both our Code of Conduct and Whistleblowing Policy through our companywide intranet.

Accordingly, to improve awareness in future, employee understanding will be confirmed through their signing of the respective documents. We will continue to cover both the Code of Conduct and the Whistleblowing Policy in our induction programme for new employees. For more information on ethical conduct training - see Improving our management.

Any Licence breaches are detailed on the National Lottery Commission's website (opens in new window).

In 2008/09 we plan to roll out a comprehensive Licence compliance training programme for our staff. This will be a module-based training package so that training can be geared towards employees’ particular roles. The programme will be ongoing and will include a variety of elements, including desk top training, so that staff can adapt it according to their needs.