Commonwealth Risk Committee

The Commonwealth Risk Committee is a sub-Committee of the Chief Operating Officer’s Committee (COO) that is responsible for providing advice on significant shared, common and emerging risks in the Commonwealth public sector.

The role of the Committee is to:

• advocate for the management of significant common, shared and emerging risks across the Commonwealth public sector
• provide a platform for collaboration and information sharing between entities to support their ability to coordinate and manage common, shared and emerging risks
• identify and escalate to COO Committee new and emerging risks that may impact the delivery of the Governments objectives or those of entities across the Commonwealth public sector
• provide insight into the management of specific shared risks at the direction of the COO Committee
• champion best practice risk management by recognising and promoting examples of good risk management across the Commonwealth.

The Committee is to draw on its collective experience, knowledge and networks to consider improvements to how risk is managed across the Commonwealth public sector. This includes sharing expertise and lessons learned, whilst simultaneously raising the profile and value of risk management.

The Commonwealth Risk Committee meets quarterly, or as needed. It may meet out of session when urgent matters arise at the discretion of the Chair and Committee members.

Committee members are responsible for disseminating messaging and meeting outcomes within their entities and, where appropriate, other APS agencies within their portfolio.

In accordance with the Terms of Reference, the Secretariat will provide a six-monthly update to the COO Committee. The update will inform the COO Committee of the CRC’s outputs, key deliverables and priorities.

The Commonwealth Risk Committee will exercise judgement on which issues are escalated to the COO Committee. Guiding principles for escalation include:

• they have a high level of materiality, are relevant and related to Government priorities
• their management can be practically improved through the actions or influence of the Committee
• their impacts are uncertain and/or evolving
• more than one entity is exposed to the risk
• they are informed by environmental scanning and analysis that supports further investigation.

The Committee's members were selected at the discretion of the COO Committee and in consultation with the Chair. Members are required to be at a minimum level of SES Band 1 and reflect the current expertise and knowledge required to support the work of the Committee.

Proxies are permitted to attend as agreed on a case-by-case basis by the Chair.

Senior officials from other Government entities may be invited to attend Committee meetings, as agreed by the Chair.