Partnership Council shares responsibility for the health of the Partnership and entrusts management of the Partnership to the Partnership Board which delegates its management authority to the Chairman. The Council has an important role in influencing Partnership policy and how our profits are spent, particularly on things that affect Partners directly, like pay, pensions and discount policies. It has the power to discuss, to ask questions, and to make recommendations on any subject and elects five directors to the Partnership Board.
The Partnership Council delegates its work for holding divisional Managing Directors responsible for the delivery of divisional business plans to the John Lewis and Waitrose Divisional Councils. Any concerns arising from those bodies are escalated via the Partnership Council to the Chairman, who in turn holds the Divisional Managing Directors to account. The Partnership Council's democratic function at local level is conducted within Forums and PartnerVoice, which are also democratically elected.
The Partnership Council holds the Chairman to account for leadership of the business in line with Partnership principles, and in particular, Principle 1. The Council has the ultimate power of dismissing the Chairman if he fails to fulfil his responsibilities. The Chairman appears before the Council twice a year to report and answer questions on his running of the Partnership.