Hampshire County Council Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Authority Meeting

Councillor Rhydian Vaughan was proposed by Councillor Karen Lucioni and seconded by Councillor Zoe Huggins. There were no other nominations and Cllr Vaughan was unanimously voted in as the new Chairman of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Authority for 2023/24.

Councillor Zoe Huggins was proposed by Councillor Rhydian Vaughan and seconded by Councillor Derek Mellor. There were no other nominations and Cllr Huggins was unanimously voted in as the new Vice Chairman of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Authority for 2023/24.

Apologies were received from Councillor David Harrison and also Donna Jones, Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner.

To enable Members to disclose to the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interest they may have in any matter on the agenda for the meeting, where that interest is not already entered in the Authority’s register of interests, and any other pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests in any such matter that Members may wish to disclose.

The minutes of the last meeting were reviewed and agreed.

There were no deputations for the meeting.

The Chairman welcomed new Members to the Fire Authority before sharing that Deputy Chief Fire Officer (DCFO) Shantha Dickinson had been seconded to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) for up to a year. Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Stew Adamson, would take the DCFO role for this period, leading the Policy, Planning and Assurance directorate. Glenn Bowyer has been appointed as the Director of Operations and was welcomed to the Full Authority.

The Chairman informed the Authority that the Service held a one-minute silence on Firefighters Memorial Day to commemorate the bravery and sacrifice of those who lost their lives in the line of duty. The Service had also participated in the Coronation of King Charles III and the Firefighters graduation ceremony, which took place on 15 June.

Members shared the following updates:

·         The Chairman, Cllr Price and Cllr Lucioni planned to attend the remote LGA Fire Commission meeting on the 9 June;

·         The Chairman and Vice Chairman Cllr Huggins had attended the Fire Diversity and Inclusion Conference on 27 June;

·         Cllr Price had attended a graduation of Jersey Firefighters, organised by 3SFire CIC. Cllr Price also shared his experience of the LGA meeting attended on the 9 June, highlighting that there was currently no investigators specialising in wildfires currently in the UK;

·         Cllr Huggins shared her experience of the Inclusion and Diversity Conference and met with officers on relaunching the importance of diversity.

·         Cllr Drew had attended a local Fire Cadet ceremony;

·         Cllr Mellor had attended several local events including a passing-out parade.

Fire Authority received a report from the Monitoring Officer (item 9 in the minute book), which summarised the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Authority (HIWFRA) appointments required for the municipal year.

It was noted that there would be one ‘Liberal Democrat, Independent and Labour’ Opposition group, but this did not affect the proportionality of seats on the sub-committees.

RESOLVED

1.     The Authority approved the current schedule of meetings of the Authority and its committees for the coming year at Appendix 3.

2.     For the purposes of Part 1 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and following an update to the proportionality table in Appendix 2, the Authority agreed that the allocation of seats on the Standards and Governance Committee, and the Stakeholder Committee of the Authority be as follows:

3.     The Authority appointed members to the Standards and Governance Committee and the Stakeholder Committee following the agreed allocation of seats at paragraphs 5 and 26 (above).

That, with regards to the Pension Board, the Authority considered the position as set out in paragraph 6of the report and noted the appointments as set out in paragraph 6 of the report.

4.     The Authority agreed that APAG include all appointed HIWFRA Members as set out in paragraph 7a of the report, until the AGM in 2024.

5.     The Authority appointed Councillor Derek Mellor as Chairman with Councillor Zoe Huggins and Councillor Roger Price to the informal working group for the review of principal officer pay, as detailed in paragraph 7b of the report, until the AGM in 2024.

6.     The Minority Group Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrat, Independent and Labour Group was confirmed until the annual meeting of the Authority in 2024, as set out in paragraph 7c of the report.

7.     The Authority noted the current appointments of the Independent Persons for HIWFRA as referred to in paragraph 7d.

8.     The Authority agreed that the Chairman of the Stakeholder Committee be appointed as the Shareholder Representative for 3SFire CIC pursuant to Article 42 of the Articles of Association of 3SFire CIC as set out in paragraph 7e of the report, until the annual meeting of the Authority in 2024.

9.     The Authority agreed to grant dispensations under Sections 33(2)(a) and (d) of the Localism Act 2011, expiring on 30 June 2024, in respect of the provisions of Sections 31(4)(a) and (b) of the Localism Act:

a)    to all Members to enable them to participate and vote in any business of the Authority relating to the setting of Council Tax or Precepts, when they would otherwise be prevented from doing so in consequence of a beneficial interest in land within the administrative area of the Authority; and

b)    to all Members in receipt of an allowance under the Authority’s Members’ Allowances Scheme or another Authority’s Members’ Allowances Scheme, enabling them to participate and vote in any business of the Authority where they may otherwise be prevented from doing so in consequence of being in receipt of a Members’ Allowance.

10.               The Authority noted the updated Members’ Allowance Scheme as set out at Appendix 4.

11.               The Authority noted and endorsed the secondment of the Deputy Chief Fire Officer to HMICFRS and the associated temporary appointment of Stew Adamson as the acting Deputy Chief Fire Officer to cover for the substantive Deputy Chief Fire Officer’s period of secondment.  

The Authority considered a report from the Chief Financial Officer (item 10 in the minute book), which provided a summary of the revenue outturn position for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service for the 2022/23 financial year.

It was highlighted that an underspend of £0.165m had been achieved against the budget, after taking account of proposed requests to carry forward budgeted allocations of £0.3m into 2023/24 and that inflation remained a major factor in all overspends.

During questions, Members learned that:

·         Around £500,000 of the £2.362mil spent on transport was fuel costs, but there was no electric alternative to the red fleet so this was somewhat unavoidable. Other vehicles were transitioning over to hybrid where possible to help save on these costs.

·         Opportunities for learning from previous projects was always incorporated as part of business cases that went to the Authority.

·         The table on page 26 of the pack reflected the rounded’ figures, but it was confirmed that auditors had access to all systems and workings.

·         Lack of certainty with future government funding and pay and price inflation were the two biggest financial risks to the Fire Service.

·         The 2022/23 audit had not yet commenced due to wider delays and there were still some outstanding audits from 2021/22, which were out of the control of the Fire Authority.

RESOLVED

1.         The outturn position for 2022/23 set out in paragraphs 6 - 12 (including Appendix A) and the use of reserves set out in paragraph 35 - 40 and appendix C of the report were approved by the  HIWFRA Full Authority.

2.         The carry forward requests totalling £300,000 as set out in paragraph 13 - 14 of the report were approved by the HIWFRA Full Authority.

3.         The capital outturn position in 2022/23 including the use of prudential borrowing as set out in paragraph 22 and the capital spend profile going forwards set out in appendix B1 and B2 (exempt) was approved by the HIWFRA Full Authority.

4.         The annual Treasury outturn report set out in appendix D of the report was approved by the HIWFRA Full Authority.

The Authority considered a report from the Chief Fire Officer (item 11 in the minute book), which explored how the Service performed against its priorities over the last year; described against each of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire Authority’s Safety Plan priorities and against key operational and corporate health measures in the period 1 April 2022 through to 31 March 2023.

Members were taken through the report and it was highlighted that the fire fatalities on page 86 of the report would be amended to reflect that they were the causes of the fires, not of the deaths that had occurred.

During questions, Members learned the following:

·         3SFire CIC income was included as part of the figures included in the report.

·         Action could be taken against automated alarms to assist in them working more effectively, but these operated differently depending on the alarm company managing them.

·         There were a large range of wellbeing initiatives available to staff and work continued around mental health. It was agreed that this would be expanded on at a future APAG meeting with Members.

·         The Arson Taskforce had a police officer in the team, and work continued around reducing arson and prank calls.

·         Risk management was embedded across all areas of the Service and therefore not focussed on as a separate/individual element

·         A lot of work was done with schools and young people directly as well as through the FireWise[1] initiative, which had been very successful in prevention and preventing reoffending in young people.

RESOLVED

The 2022/23 Annual Performance Report was noted by the HIWFRA Full Authority

It was agreed that the public be excluded from the meeting during the following items of business, as it was likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during these items there would be disclosure to them of exempt information within Paragraphs 1 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, and further that in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information, for the reasons set out in the reports.

The exempt appendix was approved as part of item 10 on the agenda.

The exempt minute was approved.

The Authority considered a report from the Chief Finance Officer on the Principal Officers Local Pay Award and it was confirmed that a final meeting would be set up with the informal working group following the national award being settled.