Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies were received from Deputy James Thomson, Deputy Keith Bottomley, Andrew Lentin, Dawn Wright, Deputy Philip Woodhouse, Deputy Jamie Ingham Clark, Dan Worsley and Michael Landau.

There were no declarations.

To agree the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 6 September 2021.

RESOLVED, that the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 6 September 2021, be approved as an accurate record.

Joint report of the Town Clerk and Commissioner.

Members received a joint report of the Town Clerk and Commissioner regarding the Board’s public outstanding references

It was confirmed that both the Chair and Chief Operating and Finance Officer of the Force were content with the scope of the IT review between the City Corporation and the Force, which had been agreed since the last meeting.

RESOLVED, that the report be noted.

Report of the Commissioner.

Members received a report of the Commissioner regarding Q2 Revenue and Capital Budget Monitoring 2021-22.

The Chair noted that the actual vacancies were a lot higher than that which was budgeted but the outturn did not reflect this.

The Business Rate Premium Reduction was cased by the loss of income during the COVID pandemic.

The projected overspend had come down due to IT and accommodation charges. The Force was holding 84 vacancies. On the £1.3mil of savings identified by consultants, ideally this would come out of the tracker whilst reviewing the TOM, HQ and Business Support Services. This was due to the savings being unrealistic, for reasons explained within the report.

On the Capital Programmes, the forecast spending had reduced from £6.4mil to £5.6mil, largely due to slippage in the Digital Asset Management system. It was clarified that if a capital programme was not deliverable, the funding could not be reallocated and there was no flexibility in this.

Members were encouraged by an increased honesty and realistic approach to forecasting overspends and slippage, with project officers being held accountable.

The Force was on track to deliver all savings but not necessarily in the areas originally planned for.

Following a question, it was confirmed that the Digital Asset Management/Digital Evidence Management slippage did have an impact, causing operational difficulties with the Crown Prosecution Service. The issue in this instance was not the lack of funding, but the lack of IT and project management resource to deliver it. It was hoped that following the IT Review, works could be reprioritised and this area would be high on the agenda.

The Assistant Commissioner explained that the Force was not comfortable with the high vacancy levels. This was being reviewed. Regarding capital programmes that assisted with the delivery of ‘BAU’ activities, there had been

There were no questions.

There were no items of urgent business.

MOTION - That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, 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 in Part I of the Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

RESOLVED – That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, 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 in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 6 September 2021.

RESOLVED, that the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 6 September 2021, be approved as an accurate record.

Joint report of the Town Clerk and Commissioner.

Members received a joint report of the Town Clerk and Commissioner regarding the Board’s non-public outstanding references.

Report of the Commissioner.

Members received an update from the Commissioner regarding the City of London Police Risk Register.

Report of the Commissioner.

Members noted a report of the Commissioner concerning the Transform Programme: Benefits Realisation and Implementation Timeline.

Report of the Commissioner.

Members received a report of the Commissioner regarding the Workforce Plan 2018-2023 Refresh.

Joint report of the Commissioner and Police Authority Treasurer.

Members received a joint report of the Commissioner and Police Authority Treasurer in relation to the City of London Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) – Mitigation Proposals.

Joint report of the Commissioner and City Surveyor.

Members noted a joint report of the Commissioner and City Surveyor regarding Police Accommodation Strategy: City of London Police Resource Requirements – Future Police Estate.

Report of the City Surveyor.

Members received a report of the City Surveyor in relation to Joint Command and Control Room – High Level Options Appraisal.

Report of the Commissioner.

Members noted a report of the Commissioner concerning Health, Safety and Wellbeing Annual Performance Update 2020-21.

There were no non-public questions.

There were no items of urgent business in non-public session.