Agenda and minutes

1.1       There were no apologies.

Members are requested to disclose the existence and nature of any disclosable pecuniary interest and any other interests as required by the Fire Authority’s Code of Conduct (see note below)

2.1       There were no declarations of interests.

3.1    The Chair referred to emails he had forward to the Members of the Authority for information, including correspondence received from the Minister and the Inspectorate.

3.2    The Chief Fire Officer reported that additional activities undertaken by the Service during the pandemic, such as involvement with patients in supporting the Ambulance Service, assistance with food parcel delivery and the production of scrubs, were detailed within an infographic contained with the Blue Bulletin, to which all Members had access.

3.3    The Chair reported that he would ask for a minute’s silence to be observed in the memory of former Councillor Fiona Chapman, who had been a Member of the Authority for many years, prior to the commencement of the next Authority meeting.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 24 April 2020

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 24 April 2020 be confirmed as a true record.

To receive any questions put to the Authority under the Public Participation Scheme

5.1    Members noted that no questions had been received in accordance with the public participation scheme approved at the meeting of the Fire and Rescue Authority held on 5 April 2000 (Minute 99/fa/94 refers).

To consider a report

6.1    The Secretary and Monitoring Officer submitted his report on the review of the Authority’s governance arrangements, in particular the role and responsibilities of members of the Executive. This included a revised terms of reference for the Executive to incorporate additional responsibilities for policy development.

6.2    The Chair reported that what was being proposed was a new model for the operation of Executive, with individual Members of the Executive being given portfolio areas of responsibility for which they would work closely with Officers, attend relevant meetings and seminars on behalf of the Authority.  Portfolio holders would report back to the full Authority once or twice each year and in this way would be held to account by the full Authority. If these proposals were agreed, the Policy and Challenge Groups, which had been suspended for a number of months during the governance review, would no longer be required.

6.3    A question was raised about responsibility for oversight of finance within the new framework.  It was suggested that a footnote should be added to Appendix A to clarify the separate roles in relation to finance undertaken by the Audit and Standards Committee and the Portfolio Holder with responsibility for Corporate Services.  Specific reference should be made to the Audit and Standards Committee’s oversight of the Statement of Accounts and Annual Governance Statement.

6.4    Mr Chambers advised that he would include additional wording following liaison with the Chair.

RESOLVED:

That the Authority be recommended to approve:

1.         That each member of the Executive be allocated a special area of responsibility as shown in Appendix A of the report.

2.        That the terms of reference of the Executive Committee be revised and adopted as shown in Appendix B of the report.

3.         That no changes be made to the Scheme of Member Allowances at this time but that this be reviewed in December 2020.

Report to follow

RESOLVED:

That, pursuant to Sections 100A(2) and 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the discussion of the following item on the grounds that the matters to be discussed involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act (as amended):

Item

HR Issue