Central Services
The Central Services Division includes a range of support functions that underpin the Bank’s activities and help to maintain our reputation. These include IT, HR, business continuity, the Governors’ private offices, and legal services.
Business Continuity Division (BCD)
The specialist area that manages the Bank’s business continuity arrangements, and its ability to respond to a major operational disruption. We oversee the Bank’s standby facilities and recovery sites, enhancing resilience wherever possible. We also oversee the resilience of the financial sector, which involves close liaison with the other Tripartite Authorities (HM Treasury and the Financial Services Authority).
Human Resources
HR plays a pivotal role at the Bank, by implementing the strategy for recruiting, developing and retaining the talented people needed to deliver against our objectives.
Core to our success is ensuring the Bank has best-practice policies in place across a wide range of areas – including recruitment and development strategies, reward structures, diversity strategies, flexible working arrangements and talent management. We also provide the business with a responsive service and wide-ranging advice across the whole spectrum of HR issues.
Legal Unit
The Bank’s Legal Department advises and supports the Bank on a wide range of UK and international issues. The Department is engaged in advisory and transactional work covering areas such as current and prospective UK and EC legislation, financial stability issues, financial market operations, payment systems, banknotes, legal risk management and issues arising from the Bank’s public role.
Public Communications and Information Division
Public Communications and Information Division (PCID) manages the Bank’s public and media communications and its work to build public understanding of the Bank’s role and functions. PCID encompasses a number of teams each focusing on a specific aspect of the Division’s role: press office, the Bank’s website, public enquiries (including Freedom of Information and Data Protection), educational initiatives for schools and colleges, and the Bank’s museum. The Division also delivers the Bank’s community relations programme and is responsible for the Bank’s internal news communication to staff.
PCID also delivers aspects of the Bank’s governance arrangements. It manages the administrative processes for Court (the Bank’s board) and its committees, and oversees staff policies and processes designed to protect the Bank’s reputation for probity and impartiality.
Security Division
The Bank of England’s reputation for excellence and good governance is of great importance to us. Security is one aspect of our activities that can have a very positive impact on our standing in the world.
Whether it is the security of our people, our assets, our buildings, our IT infrastructure, our information or our processes and procedures, it is essential that we adopt best practice. Increasingly, this is shaped by a comprehensive understanding of potential threats, careful analysis of the attendant risks and clearly defined protective policies.
Finance
The Finance area supports the Bank in delivering on its strategy and business plan. We carry out a range of statutory and management reporting; we help guide management decisions; and we also play a key role in maintaining financial controls.
There are three divisions within Finance at the Bank:
Financial & Management Accounting (FMA) supplies central accounting for all the Bank’s transactions, and ensures that relevant external accounting requirements are met. As well as preparing the Bank’s published annual financial accounts, we provide the budgeting framework that allows the Executive Team (ET) and the Court of Directors to make and enforce resource allocations, and a costing system that allows the Bank’s management to monitor resource use against the Bank’s different sources of income.
Projects, Risk & Performance (PRP) provides organisation-wide support for, and monitoring of, the delivery of the Bank’s strategy. This includes business planning, delivery of projects and programmes, management of risk, and measurement of performance against organisational objectives.
Facilities and Procurement (FPD) is responsible for the the maintenance of the Bank’s property and plant assets and the provision and servicing of accommodation within the properties. This includes the provision of support services such as catering, cleaning, energy management, event co-ordination and facilities, health and safety advice, porterage, postal distribution, reception desk, switchboard, travel and waste management. FPD also provides a central procurement function for purchasing and supply Bank-wide.
Internal Audit
Our role is to help the Court of Directors and Executive Team to protect the Bank’s reputation and financial assets. We do this by independently evaluating the effectiveness of the Bank’s internal controls, risk management and governance processes. Where appropriate, we also recommend cost-effective improvements which we negotiate with management and track until implementation.
The Head of Internal Audit reports to the Governor and to the Chair of the Audit Committee, which is composed of non-executive members of Court. Its role involves reviewing internal financial controls and the work of internal and external audit.
Internal Audit operates within the terms of reference set out in our Audit Charter, and within the Code of Ethics and International Standards set out by the Institute of Internal Auditors.