Police and Fire Collaboration Committee meet today to discuss consultation response and shared services

                                                                

The Police and Fire Collaboration Committee, which met last month and was adjourned is meeting again today to consider two items.

The first item is a response to the government’s Enabling closer working between the emergency services consultation, a consultation I previously wrote about on this blog under the headline Why is the government consulting on abolishing fire and rescue authorities in England?

The proposed responses to the consultation questions are part of the papers for the meeting. The same report and consultation response is also on the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting of the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority (agenda item 9).

Consultation question 2 deals with whether the functions of the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority should be transferred to the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside. However in the proposed response to the consultation Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority have made it clear that they are against this.

I am quoting from a longer proposed response to consultation question 2. FRS means Fire & Rescue Service. PCC means Police and Crime Commissioner.

The second substantive item on the agenda of the meeting is what’s called the Emergency Services Collaboration Programme which according to section 13 of the report there is “the potential for significant impact on the staff of
both organisations”. The organisations that refers to are Merseyside Police and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service. Appendix 1 (Blue Light Collaboration Opportunity Assessment) to the report implies that some of the savings from shared services between the two organisations will come from staff costs within the two organisations.

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