There were no declarations of interest by Members in terms of Standing Order 10 and Section 5 of the Code of Conduct for Councillors.

Donald L. Reid, John Glover, Todd Ferguson and Davina McTiernan.

A. Fraser, Head of Democratic Services, and D. McCaw, Committee Services Officer (Chief Executive's Service).

Chief Superintendent P. Main and Chief Inspector B. Shaw (Police Scotland); and Area Manager J. Scott and Group Manager K. Hankinson.

Councillor Donald L. Reid in the Chair.

Ellen McMaster and Angela Stephen.

The Chair took the opportunity, on behalf of the Committee, to welcome Diane McCaw who will now provide support to the Police and Fire and Rescue Committee and to thank Melanie Anderson for the excellent support provided to date.

The accuracy of the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 21 November 2017 was confirmed and signed in accordance with Paragraph 7 (1) of Schedule 7 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.

The Chair and Vice-Chair advised that they had no update for this meeting.

Noted.

Submitted report by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service which provided an update on progress against the North Ayrshire Local Fire and Rescue Plan 2014-17 and gave other key Fire and Rescue updates.   A copy of the North Ayrshire Performance report from 1 April 2017 to 31 December 2017 was set out in Appendix 1 to the report.

The report identified a 5% decrease in activity levels across North Ayrshire compared with the corresponding period in 2016, and a 7% increase in terms of the preceding three years average.  False alarms accounted for 52% of all activity within North Ayrshire, with fire related activity and special service activity accounting for 37% and 11% respectively.  Review of performance against the six agreed performance indicators noted that four indicators were above the three year average due to a rise in activity, one had seen a reduction in their respective three year average of more than 5% and one indicator currently unchanged in terms of activity over the rolling 3 year average.

Members were further advised that an open public consultation taking place next week with regard to the service transformation agenda and the visit by Members to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Training Centre and National HQ at Cambuslang will take place on 27 March 2018 and will combine with a visit to the new Police Scotland Crime Campus at Gartcosh.

Members asked questions, and received clarification, on the following:-

• sources of call outs received by the fire service, especially in relation to road traffic collisions;
• that costs in association with emergency attendance at road traffic incidents cannot be claimed from insurance companies but that non-emergency services would levy a special service charge;
• the economic cost of unwanted fire alarm signals;
• the spring fire safety campaign focussing predominantly on the outdoors;
• work with partners in identifying fire safety risks;
• the spike in domestic fires in the early morning hours;
• retained duty personnel figures and the challenges faced in relation to recruitment targets;
• home visit requests through partner referrals;
• that specific North Ayrshire figures from the national recruitment drive are unavailable as applications are anonymous; and
• statistics within the report are year to date figures aligned to the period quarter and these will in future be based on the new electoral Wards.

Information of the employment fayre taking place in Ardeer of 9 March 2018 will be forwarded by the Clerk to Area Manager Scott and Chief Inspector Shaw.

 Noted.

Submitted report by Police Scotland on performance in relation to the North Ayrshire Local Police Plan for the period from 1 April 2017 to 31 December 2017. 

Chief Superintendent Main reported that North Ayrshire continued to perform well in terms of reduction in overall crime and continued decreases in specific areas such as violent and domestic crime and that local service delivery of policing in North Ayrshire is good.  Contextual information was provided in respect of disorder and antisocial behaviour, serious organised crime, protecting people at risk from harm, housebreaking and road safety and for the purposes of comparison, contrasted current statistics in these areas with the number of incidents reported historically. 

Among the other elements of the report which were highlighted, was the Police Scotland Youth Volunteers (PSYV) programme in Ayrshire designed for young people aged 13-18 years, the training of additional officers in Taser use and the extension of Armed Response Vehicle roles.

Chief Inspector Main further advised on the itinerary for the visit to the new Police Scotland Crime Campus at Gartcosh on 27 March 2018 and that future reports will be amended to make clear figures and trends for comparable periods and data in terms of user complaints and satisfaction.

Members asked questions, and received clarification, on the following:-

• assaults on officers and the use of deterrents and officer safety training;
• support within the Court system around charges of police assault;
• public reporting of complaints in relation to the condition of the roads across North Ayrshire; and
• the effective use of the taser in mitigating risk and that data will be provided to the next meeting around the use of personal protective equipment.

Noted.

Submitted letter from HM Inspector of Constabulary requesting feedback on proposals for HMICS scrutiny in 2018-19 and suggestions as to any high risk or emerging areas  in policing which could be the subject of scrutiny.

Members considered the scrutiny proposals and identified areas around the following:-

• how the roll-out of tazer weapons to operational officers is managed, reviewed, evaluated and monitored, including some level of independent review, and ensuring that guidelines are robust;
• examining the relationships and structures between senior officers within Police Scotland in view of current issues highlighted in the public domain;
• a detailed and totally independent review of Police Scotland finance and funding;
• clarification and transparency around the separation of power between Scottish Government ministers and the SPA;
• an update on the previous scrutiny of Police call handling arrangements;
• scrutiny of how effectively localism has played out across the 32 Local Authority areas in terms of practical benefits; and
• traffic support by Police at marches and parades.

The Committee agreed to remit to the Head of Democratic Services to respond to the consultation on the HMICS Scrutiny Plan for 2018-19 based on the areas identified.

The meeting ended at 3.35 p.m.