Issue - meetings

Report by the Head of Human Resources (RC6).

Remuneration Committee is asked to consider whether to adopt the Pennies from Heaven charitable doantion scheme and how they wish to identify charities to receive donations.

The Remuneration Committee is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)        agree to adopt Pennies From Heaven as a method of charitable donation from pay;

(b)        nominate a short-list of charities to benefit which will be the subject of a ballot by employees to arrive at 2 or 3 nominees. This process to be reviewed Annually.

Remuneration Committee had before them a report asking that they consider whether to adopt the Pennies from Heaven charitable donation scheme and if so how they wished to identify charities to receive donations.

Responding to questions Steve Munn confirmed that the Council could target local charities. The scheme would be opt in. The current scheme “Just Giving” had a low take up of a few hundred employees. He explained that the organisation charged a fee to private companies but would take a percentage of the Gift Aid donation from the Council as a public organisation.

During discussion members liked the scheme in principle but felt that before any decision could be taken further information was needed. They would want information on the administration costs, the likely take-up and on the experience of other Councils who had introduced the scheme. They also queried whether there was some way to do a similar scheme in house although accepting that any such scheme could not take up officer time.

RESOLVED:             to agree that no decision be taken on whether to proceed until the Committee had detailed financial information.