20 July 2011

On behalf of the Fire Authority the Chair and Leaders of the Labour and Liberal Democrat Groups will thank the Treasurer, Mr Keith Dixon, for his hard work and dedication over the last 14 years.

Members are reminded that they should declare any personal and / or prejudicial interests at this point and that they should leave the meeting room before any item, in which they have a prejudicial interest, is discussed.

Members are asked to receive any questions, statements or petitions, of which notice has been received, from members of the public.

The purpose of the report is to review, and agree the Fire Authority's Member Role Descriptions, attached marked 8b.

Attachment	Size
08b-review-of-member-role-descriptions.pdf	449.06 KB

This report deals with issues arising from budget monitoring and with financial developments since the last meeting of the Authority. It requests approval to a number of virements to the 2011/12 budget as a consequence of these changes. Attached marked 9.

Attachment	Size
09-budget-and-financial-monitoring.pdf	26.6 KB

The National Audit Office (NAO) has recently published its findings into the failure of the FiReControl project. The project was intended to replace the 46 Fire and Rescue Services' local control rooms across England with nine purpose-built, regional control centres linked by a new IT system. Head of the NAO, Amyas Morse, has stated:

“This is yet another example of a Government IT project taking on a life of its own, absorbing ever-increasing resources without reaching its objectives. The rationale and benefits of a regional approach were unclear and badly communicated to locally accountable fire and rescue services who remained unconvinced. Essential checks and balances in the early stages of the project were ineffective. It was approved on the basis of unrealistic estimates of costs and under-appreciation of the complexity of the IT involved and the project was hurriedly implemented and poorly managed. Its legacy is the chain of expensive regional control centres whose future is uncertain."
Members are asked to note the above agenda item and the NAO executive summary findings, attached marked 11.

The full report can be accessed at: http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/1012/failure_of_firecontrol.aspx

Attachment	Size
11-firecontrol-project-national-audit-office-review.pdf	217.36 KB

Members are asked to consider a resolution under section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 that the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined by the provisions of Part I of Schedule 12(A) to the Act, by virtue of Paragraphs 3 and 4.