Governance

The Authority strives to deliver high quality, efficient services that are effective in achieving the specific purposes for which we were established. For a comprehensive overview of our services and standards and to find out who to contact about specific queries, you can download a copy of our Services, Standards and Performance leaflet by clicking the link below.

• Services, Standards and Performance

All meetings are regulated by the Authority’s Standing Orders and there is a Code of Conduct which sets out the conduct expected of Authority members. A separate Code of Conduct for Development Control sets out what is expected of members when they discharge their responsibilities in dealing with planning applications.  The Authority also has Financial Regulations which deal with issues such as how budgets are set, custody and disposal of assets, insurance and risk management, and procurement and tendering procedures.  

The Authority has an effective procedure for recording and dealing with your compliments, complaints and comments and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Local Government Ombudsman.  Visit our Compliments and Complaints page on this website for further details.  

To download copies of the documents referred to above, click on the links below.  

• Authority Standing Orders

• YDNPA Code of Conduct

• Planning Code of Good Practice

Broadly, the members of the Authority operate collectively to set policy and budgets, take the most important decisions, and monitor performance across all of the Authority’s activities. Both the Chairman and the other members have written “job descriptions”. The officers of the Authority advise members, both on policy and on individual decisions, and they put decisions into practice. In many relatively routine cases officers take decisions under delegated powers. The most important plans that the members decide on are the National Park Management Plan and the Best Value Performance Plan (BVPP). Visit the Strategies and Policies section of this website for details. The BVPP in particular contains very specific targets, together with details of performance.

External scrutiny

The Authority is subject to external scrutiny in a number of ways, most notably by its external auditors, and through a process called National Park Authority Performance Assessment, which resulted in a full review of the Authority during 2005. You can download a copy of this most recent Performance Assessment report from the Strategies and Policies section of this website.

Corporate governance

The National Park Authority believes that the way it is governed is important. Good governance will enable the Authority to put its values into practice, to plan its work effectively, and to achieve its objectives. Throughout 2006, a corporate governance working group of members looked at the Authority's governance arrangements in detail, auditing them against the “Good Governance Standard for Public Services”, published by the Independent Commission on Good Governance in Public Services. This has resulted in the Authority adopting a corporate governance policy, which sets out how the Authority's governance arrangements will be managed and monitored. The Audit & Review Committee will receive an annual report on progress, and this report will be publicly available.  You can download a copy of the corporate governance policy and the latest annual report by clicking on the link below:

• Corporate governance policy

• Annual report on corporate governance - 2009

General equality duty

The National Park Authority is required, under the public sector equality duty (Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010), to publish information in order to demonstrate its compliance. This includes, in particular, information relating to people who share relevant protected characteristics that are affected by its policies and practices. What we currently do and what we plan to do in the future with respect to our equality duty is detailed in the following document:

• General Equality Duty- What do we currently do and plan to do in the future