Minutes

Minutes of the Co-ordination and Urgency Committee held on 07 May 2002 at Romney House, 43 Marsham Street, Westminster SW1P 3PY.

Present

Members

• Toby Harris (Chair)
• Richard Barnes (Deputy Chair)
• Reshard Auladin
• Nicholas Long
• R David Muir
• Richard Sumray
• Graham Tope
• Rachel Whittaker

MPA staff

• Catherine Crawford (Clerk)
• Peter Martin (Treasurer)
• Simon Vile (Head of Secretariat)

MPS staff

• Ian Blair (Deputy Commissioner)
• Keith Luck (Director of Resources)
• Ailsa Beaton (Director of Information)

Also in attendance: 4 members of the public and MPS/MPA staff.

Part 1

55. Apologies

(Agenda item 1)

An apology for late arrival was received from Graham Tope.

56. Minutes

(Agenda item 2)

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting of the committee held on 9 April 2002 be agreed and signed as a correct record.

Arising from the minutes (item 54), the Treasurer tabled a briefing note for members on an announcement made by the Home Secretary on 1 May about the allocation of additional resources provided for police and prisons as part of the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Budget. The briefing note provided information on the allocation of £62m that the MPA would receive.

Provisional figures suggested that the allocation for policing and counter-terrorism (£49m) would cover the recruitment of 460 community support officers and 680 police officers.

In relation to this, members discussed the MPS’s capacity for recruiting and training at this level, as well as ensuring that experienced officers were allocated to anti-terrorism work. Rachel Whittaker expressed concern that, as reported to the recent Human Resources Committee, the recruitment process was now back up to 40 weeks. The Committee had been informed that lack of resources was preventing an improvement. This was at odds with the instructions that the Deputy Commissioner had given that improvements were essential and he said that he would take this issue away and resolve it.

Rachel Whittaker suggested that it might be possible to use some of the provision for anti-terrorism for a pilot to extend the employment of officers who had completed 30 years service. This could assist in retaining experienced officers for this work.

Nicholas Long expressed concerns about the pressure on the infrastructure at Hendon and asked for an early warning if things appeared to be going wrong. The Director of Resources shared these concerns although action had been taken, such as increasing the number of catering staff. Other ways of relieving the pressure were being considered.

57. New MPA committee structure

(Agenda item 3)

The Committee considered a report by the Clerk proposing a new committee structure for the Authority.

Members felt that the proposals represented an improvement on the present structure, but recognised that they would lead to an increase in the number of meetings and thus extra commitment for many or all members, as well as MPA and MPS officers. Therefore the Authority should be prepared to review the structure if it was found to be unsustainable. Members also considered:

• that the aim should be to have shorter meetings with more focussed agendas
• the Co-ordination & Policing Committee should be kept separate from the full Authority meetings but there might be scope, for instance, for lunchtime meetings
• that the other suggestions in paragraphs 5,6 and 7 of the report should not be pursued
• that clarity would be needed on the role individuals might take as lead members, by way of a ‘job description’ or brief
• there might be a need for further delegation of powers to the officers
• there needed to be clarity about the respective roles of the Performance Committee and the Diversity Board to avoid duplication
• that the committees would need to be more focussed in terms of the number of MPS officers they expected to attend their meetings
• that the aim should be to handle ‘for information’ reports separately as briefing papers rather than placing them on committee agendas (unless there was a good reason for doing so)

The Committee considered the present sub-committees and sub-groups and decided to recommend to the Authority whether or not they should continue in existence, as follows:

• CDO Performance Sub-Group - sub-group to be wound up as its role should be part of the Diversity Board’s core business
• Best Value Programme Board – to be wound up as Best Value will be a key role for the Performance Committee
• Planning Panel – this informal sub-group to continue
• ACPO Complaints Sub-Committee – this role should be carried out by the Professional Standards and Complaints Committee. The committee might operate better with a comparatively small membership
• Remuneration Sub-Committee – to continue as a sub-committee of the Human Resources Committee
• IS/IT Sub-Group – wind up as IS/IT should be mainstreamed as part of the Finance Committee’s role. It was recognised, however, that separate arrangements may need to be made for MPA involvement in major IS/IT developments
• Estates Sub-Committee – to continue as a sub-committee of the Finance Committee
• Consultation Strategy Board – to continue as an informal sub-group of the Consultation Committee

Resolved – 

1. That the proposed structure be supported for recommendation to the full Authority, including the proposals for the future of sub-committees and sub-groups as outlined above;
2. That the proposals for reports which are ‘for information’ be supported.

58. Medium term capital programme (2002/03 – 2005/06): impact of C3i funding decision

(Agenda item 4)

The Committee considered a report by the Commissioner and Treasurer on the implications for the medium term capital programme of the Home Secretary’s recent decision on the funding of the C3i development.

Resolved – 

1. To note that the capital funding shortfall for C3i can be met from within the authority’s estimated capital resources.
2. that, nevertheless, in order to provide resilience the capital programme should be reviewed to ensure that planned capital reserves do not fall below £10 million during the programme period.
3. that approval be given to the inclusion of C3i expenditure and funding within the mainstream capital programme for the years 2002/03 to 2005/06; and
4. to note that the detailed year on year impact of the expenditure and funding flows relating to C3i will be the subject of a revised capital programme report to the July Finance, Planning and Best Value Committee.

59. Placement of a systems integrator contract for the C3i Project

(Agenda item 5)

The public report on this issues was noted.

60. Exclusion of press and public

(Agenda item 6)

Resolved - that the press and public be excluded from the meeting during discussion of the following item of business because exempt information, as defined in paragraph 8 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, is likely to be made known.

61. Placement of a systems integrator contract for the C3i Project

(Agenda item 7)

The Committee considered a report by the Commissioner recommending the acceptance of a tender for systems integrator services.

In the discussion on this item the Clerk stressed that the oversight and scrutiny of the ongoing C3i process should be carried out jointly with that for the Airwave project. The Chair considered that there should be three members on the oversight group and that there should be regular reports to, for instance, the MPA’s new Co-ordination & Policing Committee (assuming that the new committee structure was agreed in June).

Richard Barnes also raised the serious health and safety implications of the fact that MPS officers attending incidents in London Underground stations were unable to use their radios, a situation that Airwave currently would not improve. The Deputy Commissioner shared these concerns and had recently written to the Home Office to raise the issue. He also agreed to write to Nick Raynsford, for the matter to be raised at the London Resilience Committee.

Resolved – 

1. To note the conclusions and recommendations of the OGC Gateway 3 Report in respect of the procurement of Systems Integration (SI) services for C3i;
2. that the recommendation of the systems integrator tender evaluation panel be accepted and endorsed; and
3. that approval be given to the placing of a contract with the company recommended in the report for systems integrator services, subject to the resolution of any outstanding issues in the terms and conditions of contract.

The meeting ended at 4.45 p.m.

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback