Executive Committee convenes to review current operational plans & programme activities

The Chair of the BGIPU, Harriett Baldwin MP, convened on 21 May 2020 a virtual meeting of the BGIPU Executive Committee to review operational changes made by the Secretariat in line with health and social distancing requirements, developments and deferrals to the agreed forward programme and to discuss new agreed virtual activities to be provided to members in coming weeks.

This was the second meeting of the Executive Committee since it was elected on 4 March and the first occasion in the group’s 131-year history that a meeting of the group’s officers and executive has been convened remotely, demonstrating that even the oldest of parliamentary institutions must adapt and respond to new realities and restrictions created by the pandemic.

The members endorsed an innovative new programme of engagement with selected parliamentary counterparts worldwide and other key partners with a close focus on COVID-19 responses in other countries and legislatures in addition to continuing work in support of the parliamentary agenda on LGBTI rights and refugee issues.  Efforts to maintain close contacts with counterparts in the IPU Secretariat, particularly regarding future meeting plans, and colleagues in  other parliaments over the last few months were also warmly welcomed.

The Executive Committee also reviewed a range of administrative, staffing and financial issues in preparation for its annual external audit and finalisation of the 2019/20 financial accounts, in addition to agreeing a final draft Financial Memorandum (FM).  The FM sets out BGIPU’s overall obligations and arrangements for funding received exclusively from both Houses of the UK Parliament.