Meeting documents

To consider Item 8

The Director of Legal and Governance advised Members that at the Authority’s AGM on 8 June 2016, it was requested that a review of the number of Members on the Fire Authority be reported. Members would note from the report that this request was prescient of one of the key findings of the Adrian Thomas Review which was that authorities should review the size of their membership. This decision was pre-eminently a decision for Members to make and for that reason the report does not advocate a position, rather its focus was to present facts and context.

The Director of Legal and Governance also advised Members that as well as the request to look at the size of the Authority, there was also a request to look at the implications of Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) involvement and this was touched on quite lightly in terms of the recommendations of the report, purely to note, what may or may not happen when the relevant parts of the Police and Crime Act come into force. Once the relevant provisions come into force, the PCC can request a seat as a full voting member on the Authority and in receipt of that request, the Authority was obliged to consider it and either accept the request or give reasons to decline it.

In answer to a Member’s question it was confirmed that if a seat were offered to the PCC, this would not affect the number of, or proportionality of, councillor appointments made from across the two constituent councils.

The Director of Legal and Governance advised Members that the proposed revised Code of Conduct Complaints procedure dispensed with the need to constitute and populate two subcommittees each of three Members as required under the current process in order to determine complaints and appeals. The proposed procedure was based on the procedure adopted by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority which had been in place since the Localism Act in 2011 permitted locally determined arrangements.

The Director of Legal and Governance also advised Members that if the PCC was to become a Member of the Authority, the Policing and Crime Bill amends the Localism Act 2011 so that the Authority must include in its Code of Conduct Procedure arrangements for allegations against the PCC to be referred to the Thames Valley Police and Crime Panel and for dealing with any resulting report made to the Authority by that Panel.

RESOLVED-

That the Authority be recommended to resolve that:

1.            The Authority remains a size of 17 Members.

2.            The Procedure for the handling of allegations under the Code of Conduct for Councillors and Co-opted Members (Annex C) be adopted.

3.            It be noted that the Policing and Crime Bill will require the Authority at a future meeting:

a.    If a request is received from the Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner to attend, speak and vote at Authority meetings as if a Member of the Authority, to:

i. consider the request, and

ii. give reasons for their decision to agree to or refuse the request.

b.   to revise its Code of Conduct Complaints Procedure if the Thames Valley Police Crime Commissioner were to become a Member of the Authority.