Agenda item

Q2 Revenue and Capital Budget Monitoring 2021/22

Report of the Commissioner.

Minutes:

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

 

Headline key challenges were the need to balance the budget; the close monitoring of the capital programme; determining trends with more realistic forecasting; and IT projects.

 

One of the outputs of the IT review was that expectations become aligned between COLP and the City Corporation’s IT function.

 

Members wished to understand in greater detail the operational impact of capital programme slippage and whether the issues were caused by resourcing or otherwise. For IT related projects, there was a particular concern over the delivery of Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) and Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS) which would no longer be complete in the financial year. There was also a severe delay to the procurement of police vehicles, both due to international issues with supply chains, national demand from all forces and long governance processes to approve the purchasing. The Commissioner also outlined how it is not the same as procuring a new domestic vehicle as emergency vehicles require a higher and specialist user specification, which also added to the time taken for them to be ready for procurement and deployment. Continued delays would have a direct impact on the Force’s ability to exercise public order and CT functions.

 

Some of the internal barriers to procurement were to be addressed as part of a revised Scheme of Delegation to Chief Officers and the Governance Review.

 

The recent procurement of fleet provision had required intervention from specific Members of the Court. After the capital codes were released on the same day of this intervention, it became apparent that some of the vehicles that were needed were no longer available and so additional time was taken in resourcing alternatives. All orders had been placed for the next year.

 

Beyond fleet replacement, there would be no additional bids for capital programmes for the forthcoming year, instead the slippage will be carried forward.

 

RESOLVED, that the report be noted.

Supporting documents: