Federal Audit and Scrutiny Committee
(FASC)
The Federal Audit and Scrutiny Committee (FASC) reports to the Federal Board and is responsible for:
- Regularly reviewing Party processes/procedures and recommending improvements, either at the request of Federal Board or on its own initiative;
- Commissioning the Party’s external auditors and representing the Party to them;
- Reporting, via Federal Board, to Conference and commenting on the the annual audited financial statements; and
- Overseeing the Party’s risk management and risk register.
It consists of six members appointed by the Federal Board, who may not have held federal party office, been a federal staff member, or been a federal committee member in the preceding two years before their nomination. Members are appointed for their expertise and appoint a chair from among themselves.
In addition to the six appointees, the following also attend FASC (but do not vote): the President, the Leader (who may nominate a substitute), the Treasurer, the Chair of the Financial Finances and Resources Committee, and one person nominated by the Federal Communications and Elections Committee.
Further details about the FASC are available in the Federal Party Constitution (article 16), its annual reports can be found in the papers to Autumn Conference and its Standing Orders are available.
The latest FASC news can be found further down this page.
The voting members of the Committee are:
Board Appointed Member - Dr David Radcliffe (Chair)
Dave was a member of Birmingham City Council for 10 years, and was the first chair of the Council’s Audit Committee from 2006 to 2012. During this period, the Council turned around a finance department that was failing to return accounts to statutory deadlines and to a poor standard.
He has worked at the University of Birmingham for over 20 years, which includes a period of being secretary to the University’s Audit Committee. His current role involves providing assurance to university governors on use of data and statutory returns (an equivalent of a statement of internal controls).
Dave has been a Lib Dem member for 20+ years, during which he was a Councillor, and stood for Parliament a number of times.
Board Appointed member - Matthew Green (Secretary)
Matthew joined FASC as Secretary in 2019, and was appointed full voting member in January 2020. He currently lives in East Sussex but was formerly Treasurer of London Liberal Democrats from 2012 to 2020.
He has been a member of the party since joining the SDP in 1981, serving in various local party Executive roles in Wandsworth since 1985, including Chair, Secretary and Treasurer, and also as election agent. He has also served on two economics focused policy working groups (on quality of life, and economic development) during 2011 to 2013. He blogs at thinkingliberal.co.uk.
By profession Matthew is a Chartered Accountant, and has worked in senior operational roles in the finance industry. He returned to university (UCL) to read economics in 2005, and is now retired. He has extensive experience in school governance, having been a National Leader.
Board Appointed Member - Elsie Gisslegård
Originally from Sweden, Elsie started her political journey in Sweden's Centre Party where she has held various roles, but most recently as Spokesperson for Foreign and Defence Policy for their youth wing. In 2020, she represented Swedish civil society in the EU's European Youth Dialog and the Conference on the Future of Europe.
Elsie has a track record of success in auditing and financial management, having served in a variety of roles across large organisations, such as European Liberal Youth; the European Youth Parliament; and the Centre Party International Foundation.
She is pursuing an MSc at London School of Economics and works as Content Executive for Best for Britain, the UK’s leading nonpartisan advocacy group upholding internationalist values.
Board Appointed member - Simon Marlow
Simon joined the Party in early 2021 when he moved to South West France after a 35 year global career in finance and operations.
He is a qualified chartered accountant and has held numerous CFO and COO roles for global professional services and consulting organisations, in the UK and USA.
A core part of his responsibilities in these roles was leading corporate risk & compliance; appointing & overseeing external advisors; and working with Boards, Audit and Compensation Committees.
Simon is Vice-Chair of Liberal Democrats in France; a member of the Liberal Democrats Abroad (LDA) Steering Committee, as well as Chair of the LDA Futures Working Group.
Board Appointed Member - Valerie Stainton
Valerie joined FASC in 2023. She is a member of the Greenwich Borough Liberal Democrats Executive, serving as Vice Chair as well as election agent.
After graduating, she trained as an accountant working in both external and internal audit roles in financial services. She moved to the financial services regulator in 2005, before returning to the industry as a regulatory specialist.
Valerie is now retired and the trustee of a charity supporting further education.
Board Appointed Member - Rebecca Cave
Rebecca is Chair of Milton Keynes Liberal Democrats, having rejoined the Party in 2016 after getting a taste for campaigning while supporting the local Remain in EU campaign.
By profession, Rebecca is a Chartered Accountant (FCA) and a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA); and has specialised in taxation since 1988. She was chair of the District Society of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) for Beds, Bucks and Herts (2000-01) and later chaired the Mid-Anglian branch of the Chartered Institute of Taxation for two years.
Since 1997, Rebecca has worked as a technical writer and editor in the field of taxation for various publishers and latterly as Consultant Tax Editor for AccountingWEB.
She has now retired from paid work to spend more time with her politics.
FFRC Chair & Party Registered Treasurer - Mike Cox
Mike was born in Bolton, Lancashire and now lives in Christchurch, Dorset.
He was elected Party Registered Treasurer in May 2022. In that role, he chairs the Federal Finances and Resources Committee (FFRC).
Mike, a graduate of Brunel University, is Senior Partner of a firm of Chartered Accountants - a firm which he founded in 1997 and is based in London and Middlesex. Mike is also Finance Director to several small businesses.
Previously a Councillor for eight years on Hillingdon Council, Mike serves as a Councillor for Christchurch Town on Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council and also as a Town Councillor on Christchurch Town Council.
Mike has stood for Parliament in every election since 2002 in Ruislip, Uxbridge and Christchurch.
Federal Party Treasurer - Tilly McAuliffe
Tilly was elected Federal Party Treasurer in March 2021. Previously, she was Chair of the Lib Dem Business & Entrepreneurs Network for five years, as well as an active member of the Fundraising Board.
Outside of politics and fundraising, Tilly is an entrepreneur and a publisher. In 1999 she co-founded Think, a content marketing agency which has over 70 staff working across the UK. Tilly is also a non executive director of Welbeck Publishing Group and the PPA, Professional Publishers Association, and is a trustee of the think tank Demos.
Federal Party President - Mark Pack
Dr. Mark Pack is the Party's President and an author with books including: 101 Ways To Win An Election and Bad News: what the headlines don’t tell us.
Mark worked for the Liberal Democrats 2000-2009, including a period as Head of Innovations. In 2015 he wrote with David Howarth a seminal pamphlet on the Party’s strategy: The 20% Strategy: building a core vote for the Liberal Democrats.
Outside the Liberal Democrats, he has worked in IT in both the public and private sectors and between 2009 and 2019 was a Communications & Crisis Consultant. He's also been a Visiting Lecturer at City University in the Journalism Department.
To contact Mark or to invite him to a Liberal Democrat event, please see here.
Party Leader - Ed Davey MP
Ed is a lifelong campaigner for strong public services, a fair economy and a thriving natural environment. He was first elected as MP for Kingston and Surbiton in 1997 and has been Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2020.
Ed describes the core values that drive him as compassion, community and fairness. As Leader, he is fighting for a fair deal that puts real power in people’s hands and holds the already powerful to account.
Federal Audit & Scrutiny Committee reports
The Federal Audit and Scrutiny Committee (FASC) reports to the Federal Board and has the role set out here.
The Committee's reports back to members appear here, with the most recent report at the top.
September 2024
FASC held its September meeting on the 19th. The major item of business was to review the first major revision of the risk register following the general election. The process is led by the Chief Executive who had carried out a significant edit of the register as many of the risks were no longer valid in the post election environment. However there were significant new risks because of the increased size of the parliamentary party - such as the capacity for campaigning after the rapid expansion, and renewed political strategy. In addition, we remain concerned at the risks of donation reporting with the reliance on local parties and treasurers.
FASC has also started planning for two oncoming reviews that have been requested - the first is of the complaints handling process with respect to LGBT+ and gender-critical parties, and comparing in an objective fashion the consistency of administration and approach by the federal system. In addition, a control sample of complaints relating to elected members would also be included in this work.
The second review would be on the handling of recent legal cases, and whether the process is right, adequate and efficient.
June 2024
FASC met to review the external auditors report of their audit of the annual accounts for 2023. The committee agreed to accept the Audit Findings Report, and approved the draft accounts by circulation.
May 2024
FASC met with the Chief Executive, Mike Dixon for the quarterly review of the risk register. We reviewed the most pressing risks including current legal cases, maximising general election resources (and minimising wasted effort), and the autumn conference conundrum (due to be decided at Federal Board in May).
April 2024
FASC met with Kerry Buist, Head of Compliance to gain assurance on the party’s approach to compliance. Details of the training programme for election agents that has been successfully delivered across the country were considered. The next stages are to ensure that accredited and trained agents are matched with seats.
The compliance of party financial reporting is based on a bottom-up approach of local parties reporting regularly, and therefore reliant on treasurers to ensure party overall compliance. The training model for agents could be implemented in providing a cadre of accredited local party treasurers in the future.
March 2024
FASC held a curtailed meeting because of staff sickness. It was reported that Federal Conference had voted to amend the constitution relating to the membership criteria for Federal Appeals Panel, based on FASC’s previous recommendations to Federal Board. It now remains for the other recommendations to be taken forward between FB and the State parties.
February 2024
FASC met on 8 February, and the main business was to meet the Party’s external auditors (UHY Hacker Young) to scope and plan their audit of the 2023 accounts. The main risk factors identified were recognition of revenue, and management override of controls. We noted that a May General Election would pose some logistical challenges to the audit, but that there was a contingency plan in place as the audit had a statutory timescale.
January 2024
FASC met on Thursday 11 January. Main business was a review of the implementation of the recommendations of the 2019 election review chaired by Dorothy Thornhill, with Mike Dixon, the Chief Executive Committee. It was concluded that these had been largely completed, subject to limited resources. The committee also reviewed the most recent Risk Register with Mike.
November 2023
FASC met on 1 November, and considered its findings on membership of the Federal Appeals Panel. The committee decided on its recommendations to make it easier to fill vacancies on the panel without compromising on standards. These will be forwarded to the Federal Board. The committee also received an update on the internal audit work being undertaken.
July 2023
At our meeting on 5 July we talked to Head of Fundraising, Hannah Billington, about the processes for accepting larger donations to the Party. We plan to extend these discussions at our next meeting in September. We also talked to Director of Operations, Trudy Church, about human resources issues at the Federal Party.
June 2023
At its meeting on 6 June, the Committee considered the audit findings report on the 2022 Federal Party accounts from UHY Hacker Young.
The Committee also progressed its plans for an internal audit, and scheduled a review of legacy donations for September.
May 2023
After our inaugural meeting in late March, FASC got down to business in this month's meeting.
We considered progress on the annual audit, with a report from the Financial Controller. We then reviewed the Risk Register with the Chief Executive, Mike Dixon. The Risk Register is an integral part of the Federal Party's management systems. It is maintained by the Chief Executive personally, and regularly discussed with the management team.
We also considered how to give the Party additional assurance on the health of internal controls, and are planning an internal audit. This would be a regular feature of FASC's activities.