Agenda item

To consider item 11

The Corporate Planning Manager advised Members that this report was the regular update on the status of Corporate Risks that were presented to every meeting of this Committee. The report reflected any changes and updates made to the Corporate Risk Register since the meeting held on 20 July. Since then, the risk register had been subject to regular review by officers and also by Lead Members where individual risks fell within their areas of reference.

The Corporate Planning Manager advised Members that there had been some significant changes, firstly, in relation to the staff availability risk. As the Chief Fire Officer had already mentioned, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) were currently consulting their members regarding the employers’ revised 5% pay offer. The FBU’s Executive Council had recommended that their members reject the offer. However, this only related to the pay offer itself, with rejection not automatically leading to strike action, for which a subsequent ballot would be required. Notwithstanding the outcome of the current consultation, officers continued to plan and prepare for any potential industrial action. The current consultative stage closed on Monday 14 November. Given the timescales required for a subsequent ballot and then, subject to the outcome, the notice period to be served on employers, it would be February before any industrial action could take place, were FBU members to vote to do so.

The Chief Fire Officer advised Members that preparing and planning for strike action was a huge undertaking. The focus of the Service at the moment was planning for industrial action and monitoring it on a daily basis. The Service was also integral to the Local Resilience Forums, who were looking at Winter pressures.

The Corporate Risk Manager advised Members that regarding the financial risk, the risk score had been raised, which also elevated the RAG status from amber back up to red. As set out in the report, this was due to the significant inflationary pressures in relation to fuel and energy costs and also the likelihood of a higher than budgeted for outcome to the annual staff pay settlement. When the budget for this year was set back in February, the provision was for a 2% settlement. The incremental cost of every additional 1% was a little over £200k per annum. Alongside this, there was also continuing uncertainty over the future of some of the central government grant funding.

Regarding the information security risk, in addition to ongoing monitoring of the threat environment, officers were also keeping track of proposed changes to legislation in the form of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill which sets out reforms to the UK’s post Brexit data protection regime. This was currently processing through Parliament, although there had been a delay to the second reading and a new date was awaited.

There was some positive financial news in relation to the McCloud Sargeant pensions risk. Central government had agreed to meet the cost of any awards for ‘injury to feelings’ claims, which enabled the release of a £250k provision made to cover this contingency.

Regarding Covid, the latest statistical release from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) published on 4 November, indicated that the percentage of people testing positive had decreased in England. Obviously, the position was actively monitored and any associated staff absence trends. Also under scrutiny was flu, both the human and bird varieties. In relation to the former, as in previous years, staff had been offered a free vaccination and the roll-out had now been completed.

The Corporate Planning Manager advised that as Members would have seen, a climate change related risk had been escalated from the Prevention, Response and Resilience Directorate Risk Register to the Corporate Register. Essentially, it focused on the potential for failure to protect communities from risks associated with climate change and the steps being taken to mitigate this.

A Member asked if firefighters do go on strike, what happens after the strike when they go back to work.

The Chief Fire Officer advised Members that if strike action does go ahead (and there was no strike ballot as yet),  people would eventually come back to work. Officers had taken into consideration what would be the longer term damage to be mitigated in the event of strike action. After consultation with the local FBU, one of the provisions that had been laid down with regard to strike action, was to safeguard the longer term relationship between staff and their employers. There were regular meetings with the FBU, but the decision on pay was not negotiated locally but nationally.

The Chief Fire Officer advised that in terms of the level of service provision, the Authority must plan for strike action. Normally there would be an agreement that should a major incident occur, there was a provision to call back people who were on strike. That agreement was a national agreement and was not currently in place. In terms of the local provision, the Service would be looking for people to work during strike action. Everything the Service does, was considered in relation to the four principles that had been agreed and that these could be circulated to Members.

RESOLVED –

1.                  That the status on identified corporate risks at Annex C be reviewed and approved.

2.                  That comments be provided to officers for consideration and attention in future updates / reports.