Safeguarding public money
The Fire Authority is committed to doing things in the right way to safeguard public money, and makes certain there are policies and management processes in place to conduct our business legally and in accordance with the proper standards. This is known as governance.
Our financial governance is overseen by both the Finance and Resources Committee and the Fire Authority, and reports on financial matters can be found on our Committee meetings page.
The Fire Authority is responsible for making sure that we are fully accountable to the public we serve and it publishes various documents to make its processes open and transparent:
- Members’ allowances and expenses.
- Local government spending.
- Statement of Accounts.
- Auditor’s Annual Governance Letter.
Budget and Council Tax
The Fire and Rescue Service budget for 2011/12 is £46,407,307 (2010/11 - £48,109,535). The funding for this comes from both a Central Government grant of £23,214,764 and local Council Tax of £23,192,543.
The annual amounts which council taxpayers contribute towards our services provided are shown below:
| £ | |
| Band A | 46.46 |
| Band B | 54.20 |
| Band C | 61.95 |
| Band D | 69.69 |
| Band E | 85.18 |
| Band F | 100.66 |
| Band G | 116.15 |
| Band H | 139.38 |
We are currently consulting with the public on how much local people will be charged through the Council Tax for fire and rescue services in 2012/13. The Fire Authority will set this figure, and confirm the budget for the following 12 months, at its meeting on Friday 24 February.
Three options are under consideration. You may also wish to read the more detailed paper that went to the January meeting of the Finance and Resources Committee. If you would like to find out more, or to give your comments on the proposals, please telephone 0115 967 0880 or email us before Monday 20 February.
Prompt Payment Code
The Fire and Rescue Service has signed up to the Government’s Prompt Payment Code. This means that, amongst other things, the Service undertakes to pay suppliers on time within the terms agreed at the outset of the contract.
