Archived decisions
Analysis of variances
Latest approved budget Jan 06 |
Variation Over/ (under) spend |
Percentage |
Comments | |
£'000 |
£'000 |
|||
Wholetime firefighters' pay and allowances |
25,808 |
262 |
1.0% |
Job evaluation back pay as result of appeals not known at time of third quarter forecast |
Retained firefighters' pay and allowances |
5,805 |
(196) |
(3.4%) |
Partly due to lower number of incidents than planned and partly due to fewer than expected claims for work with young firefighters, firesetters' intervention scheme and other activities |
Support staff |
7,971 |
(88) |
(1.1%) |
Increased turnover in latter part of the year. |
Net cost of Pensions |
7,853 |
(48) |
(0.6%) |
Fewer lump sum payments (-£185,000), more transfer values paid (+£375,000) offset by £131,000 more transfer values received. |
Vehicle Fuel |
315 |
116 |
36.8% |
USAR exercises, HFSC visits, increased use of HFRS vans for transport and to a small extent inflation |
Staff car allowances etc |
656 |
99 |
15.1% |
Increased attendance at more distant meetings, training and conferences |
Operational Equipment |
855 |
(101) |
(11.8%) |
Partly due to reprioritised spending to meet cost of additional IT equipment for operational purposes and Risk Intelligence simulation model. |
Hydrants |
195 |
(100) |
(51.3%) |
Many large water companies are not charging for new hydrants, preferring to charge developers. It must be noted that this could revert back to HFRS being charged at short notice as there is no legal requirement for developers to pay. (underspend in 04/05 £107k, 03/04 £92k, 02/03 £81k). An associated risk has recently emerged from a sample survey in rural area of the County which identified that a significant percentage of hydrant chambers have been `silting-up' and as a result resources will need to be found to rectify this problem. It would be prudent to at least maintain the current budget provision. |
Hired and Contracted Services etc. |
673 |
(169) |
(25.1%) |
Partly due to delays in setting up new group managers budgets and partly due to less consultancy time required for the job evaluation./MMR project and occupational health work. |
Miscellaneous insurances |
701 |
(50) |
(7.1%) |
Savings have occurred as a result of renegotiated insurance contract on the basis of higher excess levels. |
IT and Communications |
3,089 |
127 |
4.1% |
This budget includes the significant investment being made over three years to improve the resilience and capacity of the Authority's Information and Communications Technology \Infrastructure (ICT network). The cost of the project - which it was originally planned to finance through a contribution to the modernisation reserve - has resulted in an overall marginal overspend of the ICT budget due mainly to the need to accommodate some urgent development and rectification work on critical applications (including the need to provide a simulation model to represent HFRS responses to incidents). |
Members Expenses |
60 |
(45) |
(75.0%) |
Members attending fewer conferences than expected. |
Legal Expenses |
138 |
(117) |
(84.8%) |
Legal expenses relating to uninsured cases charged to the provision for uninsured claims. Remaining legal costs for general advice etc. unlikely to be significant in the future. |
Revenue Contributions to Capital (Budgeted in Year). |
1,244 |
59 |
4.7% |
Increased contributions for new frontline vehicles due to including costs of parts when fitting out vehicles, off set by increased fit out income. |
Income: |
||||
Workshops fitting out vehicles |
(215) |
(53) |
(24.7%) |
Fit out charges included cost of parts to provide comparison with external competitors. |
Commercial training course income |
(425) |
85 |
20.0% |
Increased competition from former employees and reduced demand from largest customer. |
New Pension arrangements |
250 |
(149) |
No requirement to pay backdated employer pension contributions for retained firefighters. | |
Uninsured losses |
(48) |
Re-evaluation of risks resulting in reduction in provision for uninsured losses. | ||
Other minor variations totalling |
(190) |
|||
Balance before transfers to reserves |
(606) |
|||
Transfers to general reserve |
416 |
Transfer originally budgeted at £600k was reduced by £184k for amending reports leaving revised budgeted transfer of £416k. | ||
Balance available to transfer to Modernisation reserve |
190 |
In line with recommendation at January's F&GP. | ||
0 |
Appendix 2
Capital Payments 2005/06
Estimate December 2005 |
Actual |
Variation | ||
£'000 |
£'000 |
£'000 | ||
2003/04 Starts |
||||
Vehicles |
108 |
122 |
+14 | |
2004/05 Starts |
||||
Vehicles |
872 |
917 |
+45 | |
Home Fire Safety Checks |
6 |
6 |
0 | |
2005/06 Starts |
||||
Vehicles |
863 |
490 |
-373 | |
HQ Redevelopment |
457 |
1,036 |
+579 | |
Retained station repairs |
100 |
97 |
-3 | |
Home Fire Safety Checks |
146 |
146 |
0 | |
Total |
2,552 |
2,814 |
+262 | |