Agenda and minutes

Venue: Brigade Headquarters, Stocklake, Aylesbury HP20 1BD. View directions

Contact: Katie Nellist 

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

None.

 

Live webcast broadcast:   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWmIXPWAscxpL3vliv7bh1Q

 

The Director of Legal and Governance confirmed the webcast was live and apologised for the delay in starting the meeting. The meeting commenced at 11.00 am.

 

The Chairman briefed Members on an exception item before they considered the reports on the agenda, by saying:

 

“I am sure most of you are aware that the Government is currently conducting an Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy. The Integrated Review replaces previously separate reviews into foreign policy, defence, national security and international development. It combines the scope of these individual reviews, making it the most comprehensive review of this type carried out by the UK government since the Cold War.

 

The Review reports to the Prime Minister and the National Security Council supported by a cross-Whitehall team in the Cabinet Office and a small team in No.10. It is intended to be a policy-led, evidence-driven whole-of-government process. It goes well beyond the parameters of a traditional defence and security review and will take into account the current and projected domestic, as well as global, context through to 2030.

 

On the 13 August the Cabinet Office issued a ‘call for evidence’ in relation to the Integrated Review to which, given its scope, we have responded both by means of a contribution to the Thames Valley Resilience Forum’s response and separately in our own right. Our response was submitted to the Cabinet Office last Friday (11 September), which was the deadline for responses to the call for evidence, following review with Keith McLean in his capacity as Lead Member for Corporate Risk and at the Fire Authority Leaders meeting of last Thursday (10 September).

 

I am now going to hand over to Stuart Gowanlock, our Corporate Planning Manager, who led on compiling our response, who will give you a little more on the background to, and nature of our response.”

 

(Councillor Marland joined the meeting)

 

The Corporate Planning Manager advised Members that the Chairman had comprehensively covered the background to the review, but the Call for Evidence was a bit unusual both in terms of its timing, launched in mid-August when, even with the constraints of Covid, many people were on leave and also the time given to respond, only four weeks for something of national strategic importance.

 

The haste was largely down to the fact that work on the broad scope of the Review had paused due to the need to divert government resources to focus on the response to Covid-19 and, also, the need to closely align it with the impending spending review hence the compressed timeframe.

 

In terms of shaping the Authority’s response, some guidance had been received from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), via the Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum (TVLRF), in particular they:

 

·       Encouraged us to ‘think big’ and not to feel constrained in the evidence that we provide; and, also,

·       To include examples of issues even if we don’t have a solution.

 

The Authority’s response endeavoured  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.

2.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 210 KB

To approve, and sign as a correct record, the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 15 July 2020 (Item 2)

Minutes:

RESOLVED –

 

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on Wednesday 15 July 2020, be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

5.

Budget Monitoring Report April - July 2020 pdf icon PDF 444 KB

To consider Item 5

Minutes:

The Deputy Director of Finance and Assets advised Members that this report presented the provisional revenue and capital outturn position and debt management performance to 31 July 2020. Table 1 showed the budget and actual expenditure for each Directorate. The budget of £31,339m compared to the forecast outturn of £30.816m gave a forecast underspend of £0.524m. Furthermore, the level of funding was showing a favourable variance of £0.836m which had resulted in a net overall underspend of £1.359m.

 

The Deputy Director of Finance and Assets advised Members that the Authority’s fuel supplier had provided free fuel for emergency services vehicles between April and June, which had resulted in additional underspend in fuel costs.

 

The Deputy Director of Finance and assets advised Members that there was also a new table in the report of what the Authority had spent against Covid-19. The Authority had received approximately £91k last financial year, and £606k this financial year in relation to the Covid pandemic. This was additional funding to cover costs that the service may incur. To date, the Authority had incurred costs of around £375k for the year, which had resulted in an underspend of £236k against a budget the Authority had received in 2020/21.

 

Due to Covid-19, there was a delay in the delivery of four appliances relating to 2019/20, two appliances were to be delivered in January 2021 and two appliances were due to be delivered at the earliest in May 2021. Therefore, a slippage of £200k had been forecast for the final appliance payments in 2021/22. Red fleet appliances were forecasting an underspend of £100k due to collaborating and joint tendering with the neighbouring fire services, resulting in the cost of the appliances being lower than budgeted.

 

A Member asked if a letter could be sent to BP offering the Authority’s appreciation and thanks for the free fuel. It was agreed that a letter would be sent to BP signed by the three group leaders.

 

A Member asked if the government could ask for the Covid-19 grant money to be repaid and was advised that the Covid funding was unringfenced and therefore unlikely to be clawed back. However, the expectation by Treasury might be for the Authority to utilise the residual balance with any shortfall in funding next financial year.

 

A Member asked for clarification regarding the pensions consultation and was advised that this referred to the government’s response to the McCloud/Sargeant remedy which was in relation to the age discrimination. The government was charged with making a remedy to the situation as it was found to have unlawfully discriminated as a result of tapering people into the new scheme based on age. In July, the government published a consultation setting out how they proposed to remedy the situation. That had allowed the Government Actuary Department (GAD) to resume their cost review which had been paused, to undertake a full valuation of the scheme based on this new information and how it would be transferred into a legacy scheme.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Exclusion of Public and Press

To consider excluding the public and press representatives from the meeting by virtue of Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as the appendices contains information relating to any individual; and Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as the appendices contain information relating to the financial or business affairs of a person (including the Authority); and on these grounds it is considered the need to keep information exempt outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information:

Minutes:

RESOLVED –

           

It was moved and resolved that the Press and Public be excluded from the meeting by virtue of Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as the minutes and appendices contain information relating to any individual; and Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12a of the Local Government Act 1972 as the minutes and appendices contain information relating to the financial or business affairs of a person; and on these grounds it is considered, at this moment in time, that the need to keep information exempt outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

           

The Chairman advised viewers of the live webcast that the meeting would now go into private session to hear the report and discuss the recommendations.

8.

Exempt Minutes

To approve, and sign as a correct record, the Exempt Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 15 July 2020 (Item 8)

Minutes:

RESOLVED –

 

That the Exempt Minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on Wednesday 15 July 2020, be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

7.

Succession Planning - Business Continuity and Resilience pdf icon PDF 193 KB

To consider Item 7

Minutes:

The Committee considered the report and appendices, details of which were noted in the confidential/exempt minutes.

9.

Date of next meeting

To note that the next meeting of the Executive Committee will be held on Wednesday 18 November 2020 at 10 am.

Minutes:

The Committee noted that the date of the next Executive Committee meeting would be held on Wednesday 18 November 2020 at 10.00am.

 

 

 

                     THE CHAIRMAN CLOSED THE MEETING AT 11.55 AM.