Agenda and draft minutes

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To note the Terms of Reference of the Sub-Committee (copy attached).

The Terms of Reference of the Sub-Committee were noted.

          There was a brief discussion about the references to resource management and it was felt that greater emphasis should be placed on the Sub-Committee’s role in budget monitoring. There was a suggestion, for example, that the report on the Force’s medium term financial strategy could be considered by the Sub-Committee in the future.

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 29 February 2012 (copy attached).

The public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 29 February 2012 were agreed.

Report of the Commissioner (copy attached).

          The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Commissioner outlining the findings of a recent inspection by HMIC on the Force’s arrangements to deal with anti-social behaviour. The feedback was mixed, with a number of positive areas highlighted, and a few areas for improvement identified in relation to handling of records. The key issues concerned the follow-up contact with victims and the analysis of incidents. The report also included the Improvement Plan which was drawn up by the Force in the light of the findings.

Discussion centred on intelligence gathering and the role which the new Information and Intelligence Hub would play in ensuring a coordinated approach to incident analysis.

Reference was made to new proposals being introduced by the government, which included the so-called ‘community trigger’, and how this might be implemented by the Force.

RESOLVED – That the report be received and its contents noted.

Report of the Commissioner (copy attached).

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Commissioner setting out the Force’s Human Resources monitoring data for the year 2011/13.

          The Director of Corporate Services drew Members’ attention to an error on p. 13, whereby the figures for officer establishment and strength were wrongly inputted. The correct data was 703 for establishment (budgeted numbers) and 797 strength (actual numbers).

Members commented that in the future it would be helpful if the report could define the meaning of the terms ‘establishment’ and ‘strength’, or simply refer to budgeted and actual numbers. It was felt that the error was probably down to the confused use of the terms.

Worryingly, the error appeared to indicate that the Force was considerably behind the target of achieving a balance between the staff budgets and officer numbers. The Commissioner reassured Members that, had they had a fuller picture in terms of the projected rate of leavers over the CSR period, it would have shown that they were expected to be on track to achieve the anticipated numbers which would allow the Force to meet the financial challenge placed by the grant reductions. He undertook to bring back a report to Members with better and more detailed information on workforce planning to future meetings of the Sub-Committee.

RESOLVED – That the report be received and its contents noted.

Report of the Commissioner (copy attached).

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Commissioner detailing the Force’s performance against the Policing Plan targets for 2011/12. Out of 21 targets, four were not achieved and three had incomplete data. 

As a general observation, Members felt that the Commissioner and his officers ought to be recognised for the hard work in achieving those ‘green’ targets, which were particularly challenging in the face of the budget reductions.

Members proceeded to analyse those targets which were ‘missed’, and heard from the Commissioner on the reasons why the Force was unable to meet them. The following points were made:-

·         Target 4 – Reduce Violent Crime by 10% - There was a discussion over the camp at St Paul’s having an impact on violent crime reporting. 

·         Target 7 – Increase number of people charged with fraud offences – The target was somewhat out of the Force’s control as it was largely dependent on the work by the Crime Prosecution Service (CPS). The target was being modified in the new financial year with the advent of the new performance framework for Economic Crime.

·         Target 11 – Develop Fraud Prevention Strategies – There was ongoing work to ensure better engagement with the industry. Again this was an area which was being addressed by the new Economic Crime performance framework.

·         Target 20 – Support staff sickness levels – It was noted that the target had been met for police officers. There was a reference to the impact of a relatively few number of long-term sickness cases skewing the data.

In response to a question over how newly agreed targets were taking account of the rise in some forms of crime over the Olympic Games, the Commissioner commented that he would anticipate some rise in acquisitive crime although he was still hopeful that there would

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Low incidence of corruption allegations

The Chairman drew attention to an article in a national newspaper highlighting the low incidence of corruption cases against the City Police when compared to other Forces in the country.

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 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involved the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

          Item No.                                                                        Exempt Paragraphs

          11                                                                                               7

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