Report of the Monitoring Officer

The Fire Authority received the report of the Monitoring Officer (MO) seeking to secure political balance on Panels in accordance with the Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990 and agree the resultant memberships to the Panels of the Fire Authority.

The Fire Authority was required to keep under review the allocations of seats on Committees and other bodies to ensure, so far as practicable, that they reflected the political groups on the Authority.  The rules governing this representation were outlined in the report.  There are four political groups on the Fire Authority: Conservative, Green, Labour and Liberal Democrat, there has been no change to the size of these groups this year.

The Panels are the Authority’s committees set up in accordance with Standing Order 41 and their terms of reference are shown in the Constitution.  The size of each Panel is not constituted and could be agreed by the Fire Authority.  The size of each Panel remains at 6 Members, enabling each Panel to be an exactly proportionate replica of one third of the Fire Authority.

The Membership of each Panel was confirmed to the meeting, and it was agreed that the Authority would elect a Chairperson to the Scrutiny & Audit and Policy & Resources Panels and to the Pension Board at this meeting.  The remaining Panels will elect a Chairperson as the first item of business when they hold their first meeting.

There were two nominations for the Chairperson of the Scrutiny & Audit Panel: Councillor Lambert was nominated by Cllr Osborne, seconded by Cllr Theobald.

Councillor Powell was nominated by Cllr Maples, seconded by Cllr Evans. 

As the position was contested a recorded vote was held with each Member declaring their choice for the role.  The results were as follows:

Cllr Lambert was duly appointed as Chairperson of the Scrutiny & Audit Panel.

Councillor Peltzer Dunn was nominated as Chairperson of the Policy & Resources Panel by Cllr Galley, seconded by Cllr Lambert.  The nomination was uncontested and passed by the Authority.

Councillor Hamilton was nominated as Chairperson of the Pensions Board by Cllr Evans, seconded by Cllr Galley.  The nomination was uncontested and passed by the Authority.

The Authority also agreed the appointment of the following Lead Member roles:

Health & Safety – Cllr Theobald

Assurance & Peer Review – Cllr Geary

Inclusion & Diversity – Cllrs Powell and Evans

IT – Cllr Redstone

Environment & Sustainability – Cllr West

Estates – Cllr Peltzer Dunn

RESOLVED – That the Fire Authority:

      i.        confirm the Panel arrangements and political representation as set out in the Report;

    ii.        agreed (with no Member voting against) that the political balance provisions shall not apply to the membership of the Principal Officer Appointments Panel; and

   iii.        appointed the Chairperson of the Scrutiny & Audit (Cllr Lambert) and Policy & Resources (Cllr Peltzer Dunn) Panels and the Pensions Board (Cllr Hamilton) in accordance with Standing Order 41.13.  The Authority agreed that the remaining Panels (Human Resources, and Urgency) would appoint a Chairperson at their first meeting under Standing Order 41.14.