What the records show
Nominet Board → Nominet public-benefit commitments
oversees strategic alignment and agrees programme commitments
FY 2025 report snapshot; no current public-benefit budget or UKSIC minute acquired.
FY 2025 reporting places former Public Benefit Committee work with the main Board and accrues initiatives against Board-agreed commitments. Partner engagement covers alignment, goals, delivered-result measurement and periodic external review; stated future alignment includes the business, government stakeholders and DNS ecosystem. This establishes an institutional review route, not a specific grant vote or UKSIC publication-clearance right.
Nominet corporate members → Nominet Board
elect some non-executives and reappoint Board-appointed non-executives
Articles amended 22 September 2020 and linked at observation; dated voting rules are not verified terms for every later ballot.
Members elect up to four NEDs. The Board may appoint up to four additional NEDs, who must seek member reappointment at the following AGM and periodically thereafter under article 30; executives are separate. The current-linked dated by-law allocates 25% of poll votes equally and 75% by paid-for domains, subject to caps/connected-party rules. No current weight register, actual decisive ballot or registrar grant instruction acquired.
Nominet Board → Nominet UK
controls affairs and property and may condition delegation
Current-linked adopted 2020 articles; no exercised grant decision observed.
Articles 35–42 assign Board management, meeting/conflict rules and delegation powers it may alter or revoke. Article 43 registry-policy consultation is not a general member right to approve grants. No particular UKSIC approval vote or delegated spending limit acquired.
From the investigation
Mechanism and competing interpretation
The supported path is business income plus accumulated reserves → Nominet Board resource decisions → programme commitments/distribution arrangements → recipient work . A second path is commercially weighted member votes → some director appointments → Board oversight . These should remain distinct: neither proves that large registrars ordered a specific grant or that receiving a grant surrendered editorial discretion.
Read the research & sources ↗Read the original sources 3
What the connections say
3 relationships1Nominet corporate members → elect some non-executives and reappoint Board-appointed non-executives → Nominet Board
Articles amended 22 September 2020 and linked at observation; dated voting rules are not verified terms for every later ballot.
Members elect up to four NEDs. The Board may appoint up to four additional NEDs, who must seek member reappointment at the following AGM and periodically thereafter under article 30; executives are separate. The current-linked dated by-law allocates 25% of poll votes equally and 75% by paid-for domains, subject to caps/connected-party rules. No current weight register, actual decisive ballot or registrar grant instruction acquired.
Read the original sources 2
Nominet Board → controls affairs and property and may condition delegation → Nominet UK
Current-linked adopted 2020 articles; no exercised grant decision observed.
Articles 35–42 assign Board management, meeting/conflict rules and delegation powers it may alter or revoke. Article 43 registry-policy consultation is not a general member right to approve grants. No particular UKSIC approval vote or delegated spending limit acquired.
Read the original source 1
Nominet Board → oversees strategic alignment and agrees programme commitments → Nominet public-benefit commitments
FY 2025 report snapshot; no current public-benefit budget or UKSIC minute acquired.
FY 2025 reporting places former Public Benefit Committee work with the main Board and accrues initiatives against Board-agreed commitments. Partner engagement covers alignment, goals, delivered-result measurement and periodic external review; stated future alignment includes the business, government stakeholders and DNS ecosystem. This establishes an institutional review route, not a specific grant vote or UKSIC publication-clearance right.
Read the original source 1