51 As a sub-committee of NICE's executive board, the appraisal group will be accountable to it at two levels:
     
  i the Chair of the group will be accountable on all matters of policy and professional judgement to the Chair of NICE;
  ii the head of the secretariat will be accountable to NICE's chief executive for the performance of his/her team.
   
  All advice from the appraisal group will be channelled through NICE and will be issued with NICE's authority.
     
52 In practice, NICE's executive board will be unlikely to be involved in the detail of each individual appraisal. However, we will expect the board
     
  i to give final authorisation for the issue of all guidance prepared by the appraisal group,
  ii to give final authorisation for the issue of all guidance prepared by the appraisal group,
  iii to steer the work of the appraisal group in order to ensure consistency with NICE's other work.
     
  In addition, the board will need to consider how best to handle any cases in which sponsoring companies feel that the process operated by the appraisal group has not given them the opportunity to put their evidence in full. It is of course expected that such cases will be very exceptional.
     
53 In turn, reports from the appraisal group will be presented to the Partners' Council at its regular meetings, as part of NICE's report on all aspects of its work. These regular reports might cover the forward work programme, the processes and methods being applied, and the outcome of particular appraisals. They will enable the Council to assure itself that appraisals are being carried out in a fair and objective way, and to advise the NICE executive board on how the methods and work programme might be developed in future.