Minutes

Minutes of the special meeting of the Finance Committee held on 24 October 2002 at 10 Dean Farrar Street, London, SW1H 0NY.

Present:

• Graham Tope (Chair)
• Nicholas Long (Deputy Chair)
• Reshard Auladin
• Richard Barnes (from agenda item 10)
• Elizabeth Howlett
• Eric Ollerenshaw
• Sir John Quinton
• Rachel Whittaker (from agenda item 7)

MPA staff:

• Catherine Crawford (Clerk)
• Peter Martin (Treasurer)
• John Crompton (Committee Services)

MPS staff:

• Stephen House (Deputy Assistant Commissioner)
• Keith Luck (Director of Resources)
• Alan Croney (Director of Property Services)
• Ailsa Beaton (Director of Information)
• Steve Atherton (Director of Procurement)
• Mike Jennings (Director of Finance)
• Martin Chatfield (Head of Corporate Finance)

Part 1

55. Apologies for absence

(Agenda item 1)

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of John Biggs and Richard Sumray.

56. Declarations of interests

(Agenda item 2)

Nicholas Long and the Director of Resources declared an interest as members of London Police Education Ltd. (agenda item 9, Bow Street).

57. Minutes of the meetings held on 27 September and 14 October 2002

(Agenda item 3)

Resolved - That the minutes of the meetings held on 27 September and 14 October 2002 be agreed and signed as a correct record.

58. Chair and Members’ update

(Agenda item 4)

The Chair reminded the Committee that a provisional meeting of the Committee was scheduled for 26 November 2002. He had been advised that the meeting would not now be necessary as any items relating to the budget submission could be submitted to other scheduled Finance Committee and Authority meetings.

Resolved - That the provisional meeting of the Committee scheduled of 26 November 2002 be cancelled.

59. Revenue monitoring 2002/03

(Agenda item 5)

The Committee was advised of the income and expenditure for the MPA/MPS to the end of September 2002 and provides an update to the projected financial outturn for the year.

The Treasurer reported that the Minister for the Fire Service had written to the Chair of the Local Government Association outlining the financial arrangements in the event of strike action by the Fire Brigade Union. Subject to certain conditions, police authorities would be able to seek recovery of additional expenditure when accompanying the army at the scene of fires. The Committee asked the Treasurer to seek assurances that insurance against liabilities at the fireground would be extended to cover the journeys to and from the scene of the fire.

Resolved – (with Elizabeth Howlett and Eric Ollerenshaw asking that their dissent be recorded to the inclusion of the MPA deputy clerk and policy officer in resolution 2) that

1. the £10m held-back by the MPA be released to the MPS; and
2. the proposals for rape havens and MPA deputy clerk and policy officer be contractually committed in the current financial year.

60. Draft capital programme 2003/04 to 2007/08

(Agenda item 6)

Details of the five year capital programme for 2003/04 to 2007/08 were submitted.

Resolved: That

1. the indicative medium term capital programme for 2002/03 to 2007/08 be approved for submission with the overall budget submission; and
2. it be noted that final approval of the detailed five year capital programme 2002/03 to 2007/08 will be sought from the Committee at its meeting on 16 January 2003 following announcement of the local government finance settlement.

61. Treasury management half year review 2002/03 strategic programme – progress report

(Agenda item 7)

The financial management strategic programme was presented to the former Finance, Planning and Best Value Committee at its meeting on 21 February 2002. A six month review of progress was submitted.

The Treasurer said that whilst the report recorded many areas of significant progress there was still an underlying need to strengthen the Finance Department by making some key permanent appointments. It should also be noted that the Authority’s accounts for 2001/02 would be qualified by the District Auditor. The Treasurer also reported that earlier that day he had attended a meeting at the Home Office, which had discussed activity, based costing and it was apparent that this was an area that the Committee would need to be briefed on. DAC House explained that he had been co-ordinating some work in this area and would submit a report to a future meeting.

In reply to a question, the Director of Resources confirmed that virements over £0.5M were referred to the Treasurer and above £1M were referred to the Finance Committee.

In summing up the discussion on the report, the Chair said that the Committee could derive some comfort from the progress which had been made in financial management and control over the past two years. This has been an area of acknowledged significant weakness in the MPS and whilst further strengthening of financial controls was needed he wished to thank all those responsible for the significant improvement which had been achieved so far. He looked forward to further progress being achieved.

Resolved – That

1. the progress made on the financial management strategy be noted; and
2. a report be submitted to a future meeting on activity based costing.

62. Efficiency and effectiveness review programme

(Agenda item 8)

An update was provided on the savings and benefits from tranche 1 of the efficiency and effectiveness reviews.

Resolved –That

1. the savings and benefits from tranche 1 of the review programme be noted; and
2. it be noted that a report on recovering costs from charging for policing outside the ground at football matches would be submitted to a future meeting.

63. Estates update

(Agenda item 9)

A report was submitted which updated the Committee on the latest information on estate matters.

The Committee noted that the reference to the PFI in paragraph 15 should have been to the firearms PFI.

The Chair pointed out that the Committee received updates on estates issues at each meeting. This had resource implications for the Property Services Department and it would be more efficient if as a rule reports on estate issues were submitted to alternate meetings.

Resolved- That

1. the updates be noted;
2. the Director of Property Services be authorised to undertake necessary action in connection with the valuation of the estate for accounting purposes and to make consultancy appointments; and
3. estates matters be submitted to alternate meetings of the Finance Committee with the lead member for this area being advised of developments.

64. Future of the MPS central records repository

(Agenda item 10)

A report was provided on the current position with the replacement of the Hayes repository and the future storage of MPS records.

The lead member for estate issues, Nicholas Long, referred to deficiencies in the proposed accommodation at Hendon and suggested that it would be better to proceed on the basis that this be a medium term solution.

The Director of Resources advised that discussions were continuing on the best use of the accommodation at Hendon and confirmed that it was accepted that the use of Hendon was a medium term solution.

Resolved –That

1. option 2 be adopted to convert the former driving school workshop at Peel Centre into an in-house repository (to be staffed by 13 MPA personnel) and use this to store in the medium term the most frequently used records and place its remaining low use records with the PFI contractor who will be taking over the Hayes repository; and
2. in furtherance of the above decision the officers be authorised to commence tender action and for the award of the contract.

65. Provision of a keyholder database via a sponsorship agreement

(Agenda item 11)

A report was submitted which gave details of a formal competitive tendering exercise for the provision of a fully serviced database containing details of keyholders for all residential and commercial premises and recommended the award of a contract.

In reply to a question from the Chair, the Director of Procurement Services confirmed that the Association of Local Government had been advised of the proposals.

Resolved - That a contract be awarded to Dial Media Group for the provision of a keyholder database for a period of up to five years.

66. Programme for re-tendering the services delivered through the current outsource contracts

(Agenda item 12)

A report was submitted which informed the Committee of the programme for re-tendering all the services currently delivered to the MPS through the ten main outsource contracts, the estimated resource requirements and the outline procurement milestone plan.

The Director of Procurement Services requested that recommendation 1 be amended so that any extensions of existing contracts would have to be referred to the MPA for explicit approval.

Resolved - That

1. the proposed programme be approved subject to all extensions to existing contracts being brought to the Authority for explicit approval; and
2. OJEC notices be issued for expressions of interest for the appointment of consultants to assist with the re-tendering programme.

67. Procurement of a duties management solution as part of the information strategy programme

(Agenda item 13)

A report was submitted which sought approval to placing an OJEC notice inviting expressions of interest in the provision of a duties management solution as part of the Information Strategy Programme.

Resolved - That a contract note for procurement relating to the duties management project be published.

68. Update on Operation Cleansweep

(Agenda item 14)

A report was submitted which provided an update on Operation Cleansweep, the MPS response to the MPA report “Changing Habits”.

The Committee noted that appendix 2 contained information which was out of date and some de minimus items shown there were not included in the final bid for funding from Operation Cleansweep.

Resolved - That the position with regard to Operation Cleansweep be noted and members be sent details of the final version of the bid for funding.

69. Five year strategy for sponsorship – bid for resources

(Agenda item 15)

The Committee was advised of details of an enhanced Income Generation Unit capable of making a significant financial contribution toward MPS and community initiatives. Approval was sought to underwrite the investment.

The Committee noted that the intention was that the cost of underwriting be met from the income from the keyholder scheme agreed at agenda item 11.

In reply to questions, the Director of Resources advised that the option of outsourcing this function had been explored. There were two basic models for doing this: the first involved the payment of a substantial sum to the firm in advance with no guarantee of any return; the other model was based on a fee being payable to the firm based on a percentage of the revenue earned but none of this additional revenue would be available to the Authority. Because of these drawbacks, the outsourced option could not be recommended to the Committee. The Director assured the Committee that the Income Generation Steering Group which he chaired was looking at all ways of generating extra income through for example charging for the use of the MPS logo when used for commercial purposes. Where possible clauses in employment contracts concerning the protection of intellectual property rights would be extended to include all employees.

The Committee felt that the report before it did not adequately outline the strategy and requested a further report be submitted on this aspect.

Resolved - That

1. the formation of the enhanced unit and the cost of the enhanced sponsorship unit underwrite the start-up investment with the cost to be met from the keyholder database project; and
2. a further report be submitted on the five year strategy.

70. Exclusion of press and public

(Agenda item 16)

Resolved: That under section 100 A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involved disclosure of exempt information as detailed in paragraphs 8, 9 and 14 of Schedule 12A to the above Act.

Part 2

Summary of decisions made on exempt items

Minute 71 agenda item 17 Provision of a keyholder database via a sponsorship agreement
Exempt information noted. See minute 65 for full decision.

Minute 72 agenda item 18 Outsource contracts re-tendering programme
Exempt information noted. See minute 66 for full decision.

Minute 73 agenda item 19 Trenchard House
Position with regard to the disposal of this property noted. A further report will be submitted in due course.

Minute 74 agenda item 20 C3i Command and Control Centre
Recommendations relating to an increase in funding for the construction of the new command and control centre were agreed.

Minute 75 agenda item 21 exempt minutes of the meeting held on 27 September 2002
The exempt minutes were confirmed and signed.

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