Archived decisions

Annex 1

AT A MEETING of the INDEPENDENT REMUNERATION PANEL of the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority held at The Castle, Winchester on 6 November 2007.

PRESENT:

F.H.M. Quick and G.Wilkinson

The following officers were in attendance:

K. Gardner and K. Ridout - For Clerk to Authority

E. Knudsen - For Treasurer to Authority

1. APPOINTMENT OF CHAIRMAN

It was AGREED that F.H.M. Quick should chair the meeting.

2. REVIEW OF THE EXISTING HFRA MEMBERS' ALLOWANCES SCHEME

The Panel had before them background information consisting of the current allowance scheme, the terms of reference for each of the Committees and a schedule of comparable fire and rescue authorities' allowances.

Noting that there had been no written or personal representations received from Members of the Authority and the significant review of the Members' Allowance Scheme by the Panel in 2005, members were minded to recommend no changes to the scheme except an inflationary increase across the board.

The Panel then discussed the most appropriate measure to which such an increase should be linked. Having been presented with various indicators - including Retail Price Index (3.9%), Consumer Price Index (3.4%), Chancellors Inflation Target (2.0%) - the Panel settled on the recent pay award to local government staff which will also apply to non-uniformed fire staff. For the year 2007/08 the pay award was 2.475% and the Panel agreed that this should be applied to the existing HFRA basic allowance and all special responsibility allowances from 1 April 2008. In making this recommendation, they were mindful that a budgetary provision of 2.5% had been included in the initial draft of the 2008/09 budget for HFRA pay inflation. For their next annual review meeting in November 2008, the Panel asked that the Clerk also include as part of the comparable fire and rescue authority expenses information, travel allowance rates. It was noted that at present these rates were increased each year for HFRA Members at the same level as for Local Government.

RESOLVED:

That it be a RECOMMENDATION to the Authority that there be no change to the HFRA Members' Allowances Scheme for 2008/09 with the exception of a 2.475% inflationary increase across all allowances from 1 April 2008 to reflect the pay award approved for non-uniformed officers of fire and rescue authorities. 4gM451107