Date released: 13 April 2016
Disclosure:
The minutes of the meetings of the Monetary Policy Committee (‘MPC’) are ultimately produced and approved by the members of the MPC. The Bank of England Act 1998 (Part II) sets out that the minutes need to be published by the end of the period of 6 weeks from the date of the meeting and show the voting preference of members of the committee. More recently, there have been reforms following the Warsh Review.
Warsh review
There is no specific guidance held on how to write the minutes or how to produce them. However, the following provides a brief overview of the process involved.
Drafts of the minutes are prepared by the MPC Secretariat which is comprised of Heads of Division from various departments within the Bank. Three members of the Secretariat attend each month’s MPC meetings on a rotating basis. MPC members provide written comments on the first draft which are then incorporated by the Secretariat. The next stage is a drafting meeting attended by all MPC members together with the three Secretariat members who were in attendance at the previous meetings, as well as the Director of Monetary Analysis. At this drafting meeting, members of the MPC go through the document line by line and make any additional changes. When all members are content, they approve the minutes for publication.
