Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Authority

The Fire & Rescue Authority is a separate entity from the Fire & Rescue Service and operates within a legal framework, which is heavily influenced by Central Government.

Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service is accountable to the Fire & Rescue Authority, which sets out rigorous guidelines and is responsible for setting the level of revenue funding and the costs incurred in running a front line service.

How we make decisions

The Service's strategic decisions are driven by the Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Authority in conjunction with the Strategic Leadership Team. Details of meetings of the Fire & Rescue Authority open to the public can be found in our Meetings section.

FRA Members

Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Authority consists of 16 councillors; 12 are from Derbyshire County Council and 4 are from Derby City Council.

Members are able to claim various allowances in connection with carrying out their duties as a councillor. Details of these allowances, reference documents for the members and the annual governance statements can be accessed through the documents section.

The Chair of the Fire & Rescue Authority is Cllr Kevin Buttery and the Vice Chair is Cllr Ruth Skelton. The Independent Person is Peter Wilkinson.

Basic information about the members of the Fire & Rescue Authority are listed below, where available electronic versions of each members declaration of interest form will be provided and links to more information about the member included. Some links may take you to external websites.

Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service cannot be held responsible for the content of external sites.

Meetings

The Fire & Rescue Authority holds a number of meetings throughout the year, one of which is the annual general meeting (AGM) during which a Chair and Vice Chair for the following year are elected. A further five meetings a year are held, one of which includes the Annual Budget.

Terms of Reference

The Fire Authority meetings deal with the following issues which are known as its terms of reference:

• Statutory / Regulatory
• Reviews / Approvals
• Financial

The Fire Authority's Work Programme which contains a break down of the terms of reference by meeting.

FRA Committee Annual Work Programme 2019-20.pdf (pdf 396.21 KB)

Protocol for webcasting or filming of fire authority meetings

Background

The The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 make provision for remote attendance at, and remote access to Fire Authority meetings held on or before 7 May 2021. The main purpose of webcasting is to give members of the public the chance to view meetings as they happen.

The Regulations enable the Fire Authority to hold meetings without all, or any, of the members being physically present in a room. They allow for remote meetings through electronic and digital means at virtual locations using video and telephone conferencing, live webcast and live streaming.

The “place” at which the meeting may be held may be a Fire Authority building, or where the organiser of the meeting is located, or an electronic, digital or virtual location, a web address or a conference call telephone number.

Webcasting on the Fire Authority’s YouTube site does not replace the formal record of the meeting and the decisions made. The only formal record of any meeting of the Fire Authority is its Minutes and Agendas which are required to be maintained and retained for a number of years.

Protocol

Operating Procedure for live streaming of virtual Fire Authority meetings (Webcasts)

• At the start of each virtual meeting to be filmed, an announcement will be made to the effect that the meeting is being webcast, and that the Chair may also terminate or suspend the webcasting of the meeting, in accordance with this protocol. This will be confirmed by the Chair making the following statement: “I would like to remind everyone present that this meeting will be broadcast live on the internet.”
• Webcasts will only commence at the beginning of a meeting when the Chair opens the meeting and will finish when the meeting is closed.
• The Chair has the discretion to terminate or suspend the webcast if, in their opinion, continuing to webcast would prejudice the proceedings of the meeting. Circumstances that could lead to suspension or termination of webcasting include public disturbance or the potential infringement of the rights of any individual.
• No exempt or confidential agenda items shall be webcast, and no part of any virtual meeting of the Fire Authority will be webcast after the Fire Authority has voted to exclude the press and public because there is likely to be disclosure of exempt or confidential information.
• Anything that is outside of the scope of the Fire Authority meeting will not be filmed. This includes reaction shots, walkouts etc.
• Young people under the age of 16 will not be filmed.
• Editing of content should only be undertaken if there is a legal reason, for instance confidential personal information is inadvertently disclosed or defamatory comments made. Editing of content may also be authorised in exceptional circumstance such as if an attendee is taken ill on screen. A log will be maintained of webcasts where content has been edited. The Chief Fire Officer will, in consultation with Chair of the Fire Authority, make the final decision on editing any webcast material that may be published in connection with any virtual Fire Authority meeting. The reason for any decision to edit webcast material will be published.
• Should the webcast be halted for a technical reason the following procedure will be applied:
  • The operator will inform the Clerk as soon as practically possible
  • The operator will also inform the Press Officer and the Service Solicitor so they can disseminate this information to political group leaders including an explanation of what went wrong, what is being done to recover any lost data and how we will mitigate issues in the future
• When any editing of content occurs then the same procedure as above will be followed.
• In the event of obscenities being shouted, the sound will be muted as our webcasts are accessible by people of different ages.
• As part of the process for registering to speak at Fire Authority meetings members of the public will be advised that the meeting will be streamed on the internet and a copy of the meeting retained. If an attendee does not wish to be filmed whilst speaking to the Fire Authority, the webcast operator will allow the attendee to speak without video at the virtual meeting.

Dealing with technical difficulties

• In the event that the Chair or the Democratic Services Officer hosting the meeting identifies a failure of the remote participation facility, the Chair will declare an adjournment while the fault is addressed.
• If it is not possible to address the fault and the meeting is inquorate, the meeting will be abandoned until such time as it can be reconvened. If the meeting is quorate, the Chair will decide if this meeting should continue, depending on the difficulties being experienced, or whether it should be adjourned until a later time or date.

Technical Proposals

• A digital back-up of recordings will be kept by the Communications Team and will be an unedited raw version of what the cameras and microphones “see” during the meeting. This will be kept by the Communication Team and used in the case of:
  • Internal scrutiny of pause decisions
  • Back-up facility in case of technical issues

Filming by members of the public and press

• The Fire Authority proposes to webcast the virtual Fire Authority meetings held using Webex. Members of the public are permitted to film or record Councillors (Members) and officers at any Fire Authority meetings that are open to the public and press.

Tweeting or blogging by members of the public and press

• The Fire Authority permits social media reporting of all its public meetings.

Photography

• The Fire Authority permits photography at all of its public meetings.

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July 2020
Louise Taylor
Solicitor/Monitoring Officer
Derbyshire Fire & Rescue

FRA Meeting dates

All meetings are open to the public and media.

All meetings take place at 10:30 am at the Fire Service JTC in Ripley unless otherwise stated below.

Directions to the JTC (Joint Training Centre)

• 3 December 2020
• 11 February 2021
• 25 March 2021
• 17 June 2021 (AGM)
• 22 July 2021

FRA Meeting - 24 September 2020 Open (Postponed AGM)

This meeting was streamed live and can be viewed by following this link https://youtu.be/zePtvjBifig

FRA Meeting - 23 July 2020 Open

Virtual Webex meeting

FRA Meeting - 18 June 2020

In relation to the Fire & Rescue Authority meeting scheduled for Thursday 18 June, Councillor Kevin Buttery, Chair of the Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Authority, and Chief Fire Officer Gavin Tomlinson have agreed that in light of the current coronavirus crisis, and following the advice of the Prime Minister to avoid social contact, the Annual General Meeting of the full Fire Authority due to take place on Thursday 18 June 2020 will be postponed. The AGM will be scheduled for later in the year but provisional arrangements are being made for a meeting of the Fire & Rescue Authority on Thursday 23 July 2020. A decision will be made nearer the date as to whether or not this meeting will be held in person having regard to the Government guidance at the time. 

This decision has been taken to support the country’s efforts to delay the spread of the coronavirus and help protect those at higher risk due to their age or pre-existing health conditions.  Any public questions received will be answered in writing and published online.

Committee structure

The Fire & Rescue Authority members are involved in a number of working groups and forums that interact with each other and that cover a range of issues. The inter-relating structure of these committees is shown in the image below.

Fire Authority Members Handbook

FRA Members Handbook 2019-20 (pdf 2,123.96 KB)

Fire Authority Member Resources

Documents that provide information and advice for the members of the Fire & Rescue Authority are available below to view or download.

Annual Governance Statement

The Fire and Rescue National Framework for England states that fire and rescue authorities and their services remain free to operate in a way that enables the most efficient and effective delivery of their services. However, this freedom and flexibility means that fire and rescue services need to demonstrate that they are accountable to their communities and transparent and states that each Fire and Rescue authority must provide annual assurance by producing a Statement of Assurance on the following key areas:

• financial information
• governance
• operational matters
• framework requirements
• future improvements

Annual Governance Statement 2019-20 (pdf 404.65 KB)

Annual Statement of Assurance 2020 (pdf 2,481.62 KB)

Feedback and questions

Do you have a question you would like to ask at a Fire & Rescue Authority, would you like to submit a petition to support your viewpoint, do you have a complaint you would like to make about the Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Authority or the conduct of its members?

This page contains specific information for submitting feedback and questions regarding the Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Authority. If you wish to view the feedback and complaints information for the wider Fire & Rescue Service please visit the general feedback and complaints page.

Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Authority is keen to receive feedback from all residents, visitors and from people working or studying in Derbyshire.

Please read the following information that is relevant to how you would like to submit your question or feedback.

Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Authority is keen to receive feedback from all residents, visitors and from people working or studying in Derbyshire.

Please read the following information that is relevant to how you would like to submit your question or feedback.

Public Question Time

Members of the public can ask questions at the meetings of the full Fire & Rescue Authority. Any questions you wish to ask need to be put down in writing and sent to the Clerk to the Fire Authority at least 10 days before the date of the meeting by either of the following methods:

• E-mail
  Send an e-mail to mailto:ltaylor@derbys-fire.gov.uk
• In Writing
  Send the details to:

  Solicitor / Monitoring Officer
  Louise Taylor
  DFRS Headquarters
  Butterley Hall
  Ripley
  Derby
  DE5 3RS

If you have any questions about Public Question Time you can contact the Clerk to the Fire & Rescue Authority on 01773 305 305.

Petitions

We recognise that petitions are a useful way to let us know about your concerns.
Any petition must contain the following information:

• A clear and concise statement covering the subject of the petition, the area to which the petition relates and what action the petitioners want the Authority to take.
• The contact details for the petition organiser (lead petitioner) so the Authority knows who to contact.
• The name, address, postcode and signature of any person supporting the petition.
• Date the petition is submitted.

A minimum of 10 signatories from 5 separate households is required in order for a response to be made.

Guidance on how to submit a petition and the actions the Authority will take is provided in the Petitions Protocol which can be downloaded below.

Protocol for Submission of Petitions (pdf 199.90 KB)

Concerns and complaints

If you have any concerns about the way in which the Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Authority, or its Members conduct themselves, please contact the Monitoring Officer in confidence in either of the following ways:

• E-mail
  Send an e-mail to ltaylor@derbys-fire.gov.uk
• Phone
  On 01773 305 305
• In Writing
  Send the details to:

  Solicitor / Monitoring Officer
  Louise Taylor
  DFRS Headquarters
  Butterley Hall
  Ripley
  Derby
  DE5 3RS

Your enquiry will be treated confidentially and a response made following investigation of the facts in each case.