Corporate governence
We are committed to maintaining high standards of corporate governance to ensure transparency, accountability, and long-term success. Our governance framework supports ethical decision-making, strong leadership, and responsible business practices.
Chairman's introduction
My role as Chairman of Personal Group is to ensure that the Board is performing its role effectively. I am pleased to present this section, which highlights the framework of governance that underpins our operations and ensures accountability and transparency, aligned with the interests of our stakeholders.
Read the full introduction in the accordion below
I also have responsibility for ensuring the robust governance of the Group through challenge and direction of the Senior Leadership Team. Good governance should enhance performance and deliver positively for our shareholders, staff, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders whilst still enabling achievement of the Group’s strategic aims.
The Board continues to have a significant role to play in establishing the culture of the business, ensuring that it is consistent with our business model and suitably cascaded through the Group.
This is monitored through engagement with the wider investor community, through involvement of the Board Committees and by use of the wide-ranging experience, skills and capabilities of Board members.
The Group continues to develop an integrated succession plan for the Board. At present, the Board is engaged in the recruitment of a new Non-Executive Director as a result of the impending retirement of Bob Head. Bob has been serving as a Non- Executive Director of Personal Group since 2016 as the Chairman of both the Audit and Risk Committees. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the support, wisdom and knowledge he has shared with me and the rest of the Board throughout his tenure with the Group.
Since 2018, the Group has adopted and sought to adhere to the Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) Corporate Governance Code. The QCA released an update to their code effective from periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024 and the Group has decided to early adopt the changes for the period ending 31 December 2024. The Board considers that it complies with each of the principles of the Code and we will monitor our performance against each of the 10 principles in the updated Code and strive for continuing improvement.
A notable change resulting from Principle 9 of the Code on remuneration, is that the Remuneration Committee will voluntarily put separate advisory resolutions on its remuneration report and remuneration policy to its shareholders at the next AGM, and annually going forward.
During 2024, we conducted our annual internal board effectiveness review and have subsequently begun working on actions to improve on the identified areas of improvement. We are committed to external independent reviews every three years and will continue to complete annual internal board effectiveness reviews in the intervening years. The next external review is scheduled to take place in 2025.
The Board met 10 times in 2024 and the number of meetings each Director attended can be seen on pages 38 and 39. In addition, the reports of the Audit, Risk and Compliance, Remuneration Committees and Nominations and SM&CR Committee can be seen later in this section.
Martin Bennett, Independent Non-Executive Chair
Our Committees
The Committee’s role is to assess the effectiveness of the Group’s risk management framework, to set the group’s risk appetite and to oversee compliance with regulatory requirements.
Current committee members and attendance in 2024:
- Bob Head (Chair) 3/3
- Martin Bennett 3/3
- Maria Darby-Walker 2/3
- Andy Lothian 2/3
- Ciaran Astin 3/3
- Sarah Mace 3/3
- Paula Constant 3/3