25th Meeting
of the
Fire & Rescue Statistics User Group
held on
2nd April 2008 at 10:30 am
in
Ashdown House, London, Room 6/A
|
Mr. S. Hunt |
FRSUG Chair, CFOA |
|
Mr. A. Paish |
World Fire Statistics Centre |
|
Mr. S. Emery |
English Heritage |
|
Mr. M. Coull |
Grampian FRS |
|
Mr. R. Gazzard |
Forestry Commission representing the English Wildfire Forum. |
|
Ms. S. Pantry |
Fire Information Group |
|
Mr. S Robbins |
Communities and Local Government |
|
Ms. S. Wright, Secretary |
Communities and Local Government |
|
No. |
ACTION |
OPEN/CLOSED |
|
19/1 |
Samantha to send round the latest FRD organogram, for information. A draft has been created but is not yet ready for circulation. |
Ongoing |
|
No. |
ACTION |
OPEN/CLOSED |
|
23/6 |
Tony Paish to contact CTIF regarding potential engagement with FRSUG (see letter from Essex FRS). Tony emailed Dr. Peter Wagner but received no reply. Tony Paish to write to Denis Davis to say that the Group would like to improve contact and propose a way forward. |
Ongoing |
|
24/1 |
Sheila Pantry to create, host and maintain the FRSUG website as agreed. |
Ongoing |
|
24/2 |
Samantha Wright to send electronic documents to Sheila for uploading onto the Site. |
Closed |
|
24/4 |
Simon Hunt to encourage ABI to provide a representative to attend future FRSUG meetings. |
Closed |
|
24/5 |
All Members to express interest in any of the six areas of the Work plan to Samantha Wright giving a brief explanation of what they can bring to the group - See minute item 8. |
Closed |
|
24/6 |
Stephen Robbins to ask Kirsty Bosley if there is the capacity for someone to keep the above document up to date. Samantha to circulate to the Group for comment once document updated. |
Ongoing |
|
24/7 |
Simon Hunt to ask Catherine Levin for permission to send out documents and minutes from the EU Fire Safety Network meetings to the FRSUG. Simon to send all the link for the website. |
Open |
|
25/2 |
Samantha to send the IRS guidance to put on the website. |
Open |
|
25/4 |
Steve Emery was visiting the FSC shortly and would ask if he could access the Library and give an update at the next meeting. |
Open |
1 Chair's Introduction
1.1 Simon Hunt, Chair, welcomed everyone to the meeting.
2 Apologies
2.1 |
Mr. D. Sugg |
Communities and Local Government |
Mr. D. Beverley |
FBU |
3 Minutes of the 24th Meeting
Accuracy:
3.1 Minute 6.1 should say that the FRSUG Website was hosted in its own right and the FIGUK website is similarly hosted.
4 Matters Arising
4.1 Actions from the last meeting have been updated.
5 FRSUG website discussion - progress update
5.1 In the Constitution, the first line should read 'Fire and Rescue...', not 'Fire and Research...'.
5.2 Sheila Pantry will make changes as noted during this meeting.
5.3 Samantha will send the link to all members for comment by the end of the following week.
5.4 Samantha to send the IRS guidance to put on the website.
6 Development of the key areas of the Group's workplan
6.1 Rob Gazzard will put together a paper (called UK vegetation fire statistics, UKVFS) to the Programme Advisory Group for the Forestry Commission in England. The PAG looks at forest fires only, not wildfire. The paper is for England only and Rob will agree with them how data is sent to him. Later he will speak with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to discuss established protocols for sending data too if they wish. He will draft something for discussion at the next FRSUG meeting.
6.2 Tony Paish said that there may be other groups that FRSUG may want to liaise with, for example Health Statistics. Simon Hunt said that the work Rob is doing is an element of working with other Groups and we should assist him as a first step. A Memorandum of Understanding needs to be created between Forestry Commission and FSRD on the sharing of data to enable reporting to the EU / UN etc. Simon will speak to Kirsty Bosley and Cath Reynolds regarding this.
6.3 Cath Reynolds wrote to Simon Hunt asking if the Group would look at IRMP statistics and the IRS project. Another sub group of the work plan will need to be created. The Group can consider items and forward a consolidated view. The Group were content to carry out these activities as part of the regular meeting structures.
6.4 Dissemination Activities - Sheila Pantry would look to produce a 100 word draft for a press release in the future for the Group to consider.
7 Any other Business
7.1 Simon spoke about the development of assurance for operational doctrine he was working on for FRD. Some guidance was nearly 50 years old and exercises to re-determine risk areas and prioritisation were being carried out. The development of new guidance would need to be supported by a quality assurance process. Sheila said that this update would be very interesting as she agreed that much of the current guidance was very old and doesn't reflect current legislation.
7.2 Rob Gazzard asked if Simon had any information from the IRMP workshop. Simon said that this had been written up and will be sent out with the IRMP guidance.
7.3 Sheila Pantry raised a concern that the Fire Service College resource centre information was no longer available to the public. FRSs who find the information useful can no longer use the service. Simon said he would try to find out what was happening in the context operational guidance. There was concern from the Group that several FRSs had donated information to the FSC Library and could no longer access it. Steve Emery was visiting the FSC shortly and would ask if he could access the Library and give an update at the next meeting.
7.4 Simon advised he would be meeting the Federation of British Fire Organisations (FOBFO) in the afternoon with Cath Reynolds and Samantha Wright regarding fire statistics and that he would see what opportunities might exist for closer working with FOBFO given their common interest in statistics and the representation they provided to CTIF.
8 Date and location of Next Meeting (26th)
Thursday 5th June 2008; 10.30 - 13.00
Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London
Room 6/A (2nd floor)