Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire's Draft Fire and Rescue Service Budget and Precept 2024-25

Report of the Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel (The Panel) to the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire (The PFCC)

With regard to: The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire’s Draft Fire and Rescue Service Budget and Precept 2024/25.

We are required under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 to consider, and report our views formally to you, on your proposed Budget/Precept for the Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service for 2024/25. Accordingly, we considered those proposals at our meeting on 12 February 2024.

We have the power to veto your Precept if we consider it to be too low or too high. In the event of the veto being exercised, a revised proposed Precept would be required from you.

You attended the 12 February 2024 Panel meeting accompanied by the Director of Finance (Section 151 Officer) for the Fire and Rescue Service.

In your introduction to the report, you explained that the total budget requirement for the service was £50.065m and including part fund the balance from Council Tax funding of £31.746m and a proposed increase of 2.99% (£2.52) per annum (£86.77 pa per Band D property).

The Panel questioned how the budget had been prepared and how the assumptions had been arrived at and how risks would be managed.

The Panel commented that more data would have been useful to show how the risk assessment and general reserves for 2024/25 had been arrived at. This could also have included any mitigating actions.

The Panel unanimously agreed to support the 2.99% increase in the Fire and Rescue Authority Precept for 2024/25.

Councillor B Peters

Chairman, Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel.