Minutes

Minutes of the meeting of the Corporate Governance Committee of the Metropolitan Police Authority held on 23 March 2009 at 10 Dean Farrar Street, Westminster, London SW1H 0NY (the meeting was preceded by a presentation by Les Kidner, Audit Commission, for members and some staff).

Present

Members

• Toby Harris (Chair)
• Valerie Brasse
• Neil Johnson
• Joanne McCartney
• Caroline Pidgeon (tem 1-10)

MPA officers

• Catherine Crawford (Chief Executive)
• Ken Hunt (Treasurer)
• Peter Tickner (Deputy Director, Internal Audit)
• Ruth Hastings Iqball (Committee Officer)

MPS officers

• Nick Kettle (Head of Safety and Health Risk Management Team)
• Anne McMeel (Director of Resources)
• Ellie Ryan (Director, Employee Relations, Health and Wellbeing, HR)
• Nicholas Sutcliffe (Ch Inspector, CO11 – Officer Safety)
• David Willis (Divisional Director Estates Management, Property Services)

Also in attendance

• Martin Searle (Senior Audit Manager, Audit Commission).

53. Apologies for absence

(Agenda item 1)

Apologies were received from Linda Duncan (Head of Governance Services, Hyman Capital Services Limited) and Richard Stephenson (Director, Group Health, Safety and Environment, Transport for London) (co opted members).

54. Declarations of interests

(Agenda item 2)

No declarations of interests were received.

55. Minutes of the Corporate Governance Committee (Part 1) - 8 December 2008

(Agenda item 3)

The minutes of the previous meeting were considered. Member noted that there were no separate part 2 minutes (because nothing was written that needed to be kept exempt.) and asked that provision be made in part 2 of future agendas for members to discuss anything arising from the part 2 of the minutes if desired.

Resolved – That

1. the minutes of the Corporate Governance Committee held on 8 December 2008 be signed and agreed as a correct record; and
2. members be afforded the opportunity to discuss part 2 minutes in part 2 of the agenda.

56. Health and Safety Performance Report

(Agenda item 4)

The Head of Safety and Health Risk Management Team (SHRMT) introduced a report containing a comparison of injuries reported within the MPS in 2007 and 2008 and outlining health and safety initiatives being progressed to ensure the MPA/MPS were compliant with health and safety at work legislation. One such initiative, in conjunction with the Home Office Scientific Branch and Central Operations, was determining a replacement for halon gas fire extinguishers used for public order duties. Members asked for a briefing note providing more detail on this. In response to questions, members were given more information about the Health and Safety Executive’s request to a visit to the cooling tower at Stoke Newington police station.

Members asked if more than four categories were recorded by MetAir and sought assurance that there was no ‘catch all’ category showing an increase in accidents. The Head of SHRMT stated that it had been previously agreed with the Committee that only the top four categories should be reported upon, but undertook to provide this information in future reports. He added that a new improved MetAir system would be introduced in December, which would reduce the use of the ‘catch all category.

Members asked about the recommendations arising from the Internal Audit report on health and safety in the MPS. They were told the recommendations were not dissimilar to those revealed by internal audits within the MPS and all recommendations were considered and implemented as soon as possible. The Committee also asked if the SHRMT benchmarked the MPS’s health and safety performance with other police services. It was told this had been tried, but no other service collected data in the same way, however ACPO was identifying areas of comparison and the MPS worked with national police health and safety bodies.

Resolved - That

1. the report be noted;
2. a briefing be received on halon gas; and
3. future reports contain information about the ‘catch all’ category on MetAir.

57. Training accident report

(Agenda item 5)

This report informed the Committee that the SHRMT had identified funding for a study, commencing in March 2009, of the training accidents contained in two years of MetAir accident data. The aim of the study was to identify causation factors to establish why training activities in the MPS accounted for a significant percentage of the major injuries reported each month.

The Chair welcomed the report but reiterated his concern that although training had to be realistic, this had to be balanced against the number of injuries this inflicted. Members asked if there was an acceptable level of injury, and if there were, were those parameters policed. They also noted that there was no references to gender in the report and asked if some of the reported injuries were unrelated to training, i.e. a fall at lunch time. The Head of SHRMT said these concerns would be teased out by the study.

The Ch Inspector, CO11 – Officer Safety, suggested that the number of injuries was perhaps not a disproportionate as appeared, adding that with 5,000 students attending 20,000 training days there had been only 19 significant injuries and all training was National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA) and Association of Chief Police Officer (ACPO) approved. However he welcomed the study as supporting the MPS’s duty of care to officers and staff.

The Head of SHRMT undertook to provide a further report at the next meeting.

Resolved – That the report be noted and a further report be made to the next meeting.

58. Internal audit progress report

(Agenda item 6)

The Committee received a report summarising the work of Internal Audit for the period April 2008 to March 2009, the results of significant Internal Audit work to date and the adequacy and effectiveness of control in MPS systems where Internal Audit had issued final reports since April 2008. The Director, Internal Audit, outlined some changes to the original programme of audits presented to the Committee on a previous occasion. He noted that the annual assurance score was not likely to show an improvement upon last year’s position and was talking to the Director of Resources about areas of concern.

The Chair asked about the number of calls to ‘Rightline’ and their significant. He was told the few calls were rarely useful, and often related to Directorate of Professional Standards or HR issues. Members were concerned by the low level of implementation of recommendations, and if there was a timetable for implementation. The Director of Internal Audit noted that recommendations were shared whilst in draft and should be implemented quicker. The Director of Resources admitted that the compliance figures were not good enough, and that a new quality assurance team monitoring the recommendations had only been in place for a few months. Protocols were in place to deal with recommendations and the team would monitor recommendations for trends. She added that some recommendations could not be implemented until the closure of accounts.

The Chair stated that the committee needed to have greater oversight of on the implementation of audit recommendations and requested a report on how this could be achieved at the next meeting.

Resolved – That

1. the progress made in achieving the 2008/09 Internal Audit Plan be noted;
2. the current Internal Audit evaluation of the adequacy and effectiveness of internal control in the MPS be noted; and
3. a report be received at the next Committee on how the Committee could achieve greater oversight of acceptance and implementation of Internal Audit recommendations.

59. Annual Governance Statement – quarterly update

(Agenda item 7)

The MPA was required to include an Annual Governance Statement in its financial statements on its governance arrangements. The Committee had requested regular reports updating it on progress in addressing the significant governance issues included in the statement of accounts for 2007/08.

Resolved – That report be noted.

60. Corporate risk management – MPA assurance process

(Agenda item 8a)

Members received a report outlining how the MPA discharged its responsibility for ensuring effective risk management was in place in the MPS. In particular, it covered the oversight role of the Committee and senior officers within the MPA and MPS in ensuring key corporate risks were properly identified, assessed and managed

The report stated that the MPS Service Improvement Board (SIB), chaired by the Director of Resources, had the lead in supporting the MPS Management Board in overseeing the management of corporate risk and reviewed the corporate risk register at least every two months. It went on to say that the MPA was not represented on SIB, however, arrangements had been made for an MPA review of the MPS corporate risk register following the appropriate SIB meeting to provide assurance that risks have been properly identified and assessed and that appropriate mitigation was in place. Any significant issues arising from the review would then be fed back to the SIB for action to be taken before reporting back to the MPA’s Management Team and Corporate Governance Committee as appropriate. The report added that the outcome of these reviews would be reported to Committee on a half yearly basis.

The Chair felt it would be useful to have the MPA represented at SIB, instead of reviews at a later date. He was supported in this view by the Chief Executive and members who felt the MPA should be aware of risks as soon as possible. Members also felt they should receive reports more frequently, so that the Committee could discharge its responsibility in this direction. The Director of Resources stated that the MPA had been excluded from the SIB as it might wish to discuss issues privately. The Chair stated that, whilst recognising the MPS’s sensitivities, he wished to add a recommendation that that the MPA would be represented at officer level on the SIB and the Committee would receive quarterly reports on the MPS corporate risk register.

Resolved – That MPA would be represented at officer level in the SIB, and the Committee receive quarterly reports on the MPS corporate risk register.

61. MPS corporate governance framework update

(Agenda item 8b)

The Director of Resources introduced a progress report on the MPS corporate governance work programme and included updates on the areas identified by the MPS Annual Assurance Statement that enhance the MPS’ governance arrangements, on the work programme itself, and on Corporate Risk Management update.

Resolved – That the report be noted and the MPS Risk Management Strategy as set out in Appendix 2 be endorsed, subject to change resolved in the previous agenda item.

62. Implementing International Financial Reporting Standards

(Agenda item 9)

In March 2007, the Government announced in its Budget Report that all government and other public bodies should in future publish their annual financial statements in line with International Financial Reporting Standards. Early planning was seen as key in successfully making the transition to the new arrangements and this report provided members with update on progress made since the last report in December 2008. The Treasurer noted that advice from CIPFA was still awaited.

Resolved – That the report and the appended project plan be noted.

63. Gifts and hospitality policy – MPS

(Agenda item 10)

A report was received outlining the policy in respect of gifts and hospitality for the MPS. A member stated that she had asked the Chief Executive to see a copy of such a register and had been shown that for the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner. She was unhappy with some of the entries. In relation to the SOP, members noted that

• the word ‘family’ was undefined,
• protocols around alcohol were vague,
• there were no timescales around when the register should be completed,
• it did not state what should became of gifts,
• registers should ideally be electronic and made available to the public,
• there was no reference to a quality assurance process in the reporting of gifts and hospitality, and
• there was insufficient guidance about what events could or could not be attended.

However other members felt the SOP should not be too prescriptive and should provide the capacity to exercise discretion. The example of a working breakfast shared by a member and a BOCU commander costing under £10 being shown in a hospitality register was cited.

The Director of Internal Audit felt that not all the comments made by Internal Audit in relation to the policy had been included. The Director of Employee Relations, Health and Wellbeing, HR, stated that providing electronic versions of the registers was part of the Transforming HR work. The Director of Resources outlined her experience of the difficulties in accepting gifts, stating that she had, in her absence, been given a valuable gift; however it would have been seen by the giver to be very rude to return it. She noted that her Directorate had an electronic register, but until recently it had been policy to keep such registers in a bound book to prevent the suspicion of tampering with entries.

It was agreed the Committee would acknowledge the progress made, but that it could not endorse the report. A further report was requested and the Director of Resources undertook to provide a progress report at the next meeting.

Resolved – That

1. the progress made be acknowledged, however the SOP could not be endorsed; and
2. a further report be received at the next meeting.

64. Business credit card update

(Agenda item 11)

A report was received providing details of the work completed in relation to the business card investigation, first reported to Full Authority in November 2007 and to this Committee regularly ever since. It also provided detail of progress on the implementation of the new management process for the governance of the MPS Business Card. The Chair asked for more information about the card holders in table 3.

Resolved – That

1. the progress made in accounting for the residual outstanding American Express card expenditure pre and post April 2006 be noted;
2. the progress with ongoing investigations being undertaken by the Directorate of Professional Standards and MPA Internal Audit be noted;
3. the progress with outstanding Barclaycard returns and the action being taken to reduce further the numbers of accounts where returns are overdue be noted; and
4. it be agreed that, beyond the enquiries being conducted by the Directorate of Professional Standards and MPA Internal Audit, the monitoring and reporting of the outstanding American Express returns should be drawn to a close with the small number of residual American Express items passed to Internal Audit for a final review to ensure all reasonably practical steps have been taken to account for funds.

65. MPA urgency procedure

(Agenda item 12)

A report was received considering changes and options that would improve the current MPA urgency procedure. Members felt that the report proposed a more transparent process, but some concerns remained outstanding. They also felt there should be changes to standing orders. Members recommended the inclusion of a paragraph in the urgency form stating why the request could not have been made earlier, and suggested that the Chief Executive’s assessment should be the first stage of the process. The Chief Executive suggested that interested members should discuss the proposed procedure further with the Chief Executive and report author and that a further report be submitted.

Resolved – That

1. the proposals to improve the transparency and accountability of the Authority’s urgency process as given at paragraph 7-11 of the report be considered; and
2. interested members and the Chief Executive meet with the report author and a revised report be submitted to the next meeting.

66. Exclusion of press and public

(Agenda item 13)

Resolved – That the press and public be asked to leave the meeting during discussion of the remaining item of business because exempt information as defined in of Part 1, Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) was likely to be made known.

Summary of items considered in part 2

67. MPS assault study report

(Agenda item 14)

Members received a report containing a study on police officer and PCSO assaults recently carried out by the MPS Strategic Research Unit. The findings of this report were currently being studied by the MPS Officer Safety Training Unit and MPS Strategic Health and Safety Committee.

68. Imber Court Sports Club

(Agenda item 15)

Members received a report on negotiations with Imber Court Sports Club to meet the MPA’s objective of establishing clear legal responsibilities for statutory compliance and governance. Members agreed the current situation could not be allowed to continue and agreed that Imber Court should not be given more preferential terms than those given to other clubs.

69. Business credit card update - exempt appendix to report 11

(Agenda item 16)

The exempt appendix to report 11 was received. The Chair requested a report on cases referred to the Directorate of Professional Standards at the next meeting.

70. High risk audit recommendations

(Agenda item 17)

That the status of all outstanding high-risk recommendations made in relation to MPS control systems by MPA Internal Audit were noted.

The meeting ended at 1.00 pm

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