In the absence of Councillor Edna Finneran, Chair of the Scrutiny Committee Monitoring Officer, Ria Groves, asked for a nomination for Chair for today’s meeting. Councillor Heather Westhead nominated Councillor Dave Hanratty, which was seconded by Councillor Sam Gorst. This was agreed by all.

To consider any apologies for absence.

Apologies received from Councillors Edna Finneran, Jeanette Banks, Doreen Knight, Mike Sullivan and Co-opted Member Mr Anthony Boyle. Councillor Chris Page attended as a substitute.

To consider declarations of interest in relation to any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest in relation to any item on the agenda.

To consider the minutes of the last meeting held on 18^th September 2025.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the last meeting held on 18^th September 2025 be approved as an accurate record.

To discuss the report relating to Response Key Pefomance Indicators (CFO/50/2526).

Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Ged Sheridan, advised Members that at the Policy & Resources Committee on 12^th December 2024, the Service Delivery Plan Update report for July to September 2024-2025 was presented for review. During the meeting, several of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) excellent performance were noted by Members, particularly KPI TR08 which related to appliance standards, and the first attendance of appliances at all life risk incidents in 10 minutes. Members had enquired about attendance standards, noting the impressive 96.4% response standard within 10 minutes, however, it was suggested that further scrutiny take place around those that fell below the average. This was therefore included in the scope of the Scrutiny Committee’s Scrutiny Forward Work Plan.

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer welcomed Group Manager for Operational Response, Neil Mooney, to take Members through a detailed presentation outlining the progress the Service had made to date in monitoring and improving operational standards. 

Group Manager Neil Mooney advised Members that he overlooked the performance of 21 Fire Stations and the KPIs relating to responding to incidents and duties within the community.

Neil advised that there were two KPIs within Fire Control which was the percentage of 999 calls answered in under 10 seconds (DR22) and the average time taken to process a life risk call by Fire Control (DR29) which was the first crucial step in effective response. DR22 had a target of 96% which the Service had exceeded from 2020 to present day, with the last year being 97.4%. Whilst DR29 did not have a target set, it was about monitoring this. This was because the Service’s aim was not to have a target to end calls within a set time or quickly. For example, Fire Control could be giving lifesaving guidance and advice over the phone which could lead to a 10-minute phone call. This KPI was an indicator to look for trends and which incident types generated a longer call time.

Last year Fire Control took between 125,000 – 130,000 calls of which 23,103 were emergency calls. It was explained that the non-emergency calls were administration calls, calls from other blue light partners and managing national assets that the Service had through National Resilience. Neil advised that Fire Control staff not only dealt with emergency calls, but gave fire survival guidance, helped people in stressful situations, created incident logs, mobilised appliances and assets to incidents and monitored radio traffic from other ongoing incidents. Members noted that a lot of work was produced from one phone call, and often there were duplicate calls for the same incident.

The Service measured the response from when appliances were alerted of an incident by Fire Control to how quickly the appliance was on the way to the incident with blue lights (DR23). Whilst Fire Control were still on the 999 calls, they alerted the appliances and created the incident log to get appliances mobilised. The target for this KPI was 1.9 minutes which equated to 1 minute and 54 seconds. Within  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

To consider the Scrutiny Forward Work Plan (MO/13/2526).

Monitoring Officer, Ria Groves, advised that Members were familiar that the Scrutiny Forward Work Plan was a standard item brought to Members to update them on the progress in 2025-2026 and a copy was contained in Appendix A.

Members noted that all items, with one exception, had been presented throughout the municipal year. Ria advised that the remaining item was ‘Management of Contaminants’ which was provisionally to be presented at this meeting, however, she was made aware that further works were being undertaken regarding contaminants including an inspection by the Health & Safety Executive. Therefore, the team thought it would be more prudent to bring this item to the next Scrutiny Committee to feedback on the outcome of the inspection t which would be in the following municipal year of 2026-27. 

Councillor Kieran Murphy asked when the next Scrutiny Committee would take place. Ria advised that the dates for the next municipal year would be confirmed at the Annual General Meeting, although it was likely to be at the end of July.

Monitoring Officer, Ria Groves, added that Scrutiny Workshops had been held after the AGM for Members of the Scrutiny Committee where they would meet with the Assistant Chief Fire Officer to put forward if there were any areas that Members wanted to scrutinise as part of the new Scrutiny Forward Work Plan.

RESOLVED that;

a)    the progress of the Scrutiny Forward Work Plan 2025/26 to date be noted; and

b)    the recommendation that the remaining scrutiny item on the Scrutiny Forward Work Plan 2025/26 be carried forward to the next Scrutiny Forward Work Plan for 2026/27 be approved.

Close

The date of next meeting will be after the Annual General Meeting.