DMFD262 LFC Budget Submission 2025-26: Re-organisation proposals

1.1.    The London Fire Commissioner’s (LFC) budget submission to the Mayor for 2025-26 is predicated on the London Fire Brigade achieving savings.  Part two of this report sets out proposals to achieve savings and ensure a balanced budget in 2025-26 and subsequent years. 
1.2.    As part of the 2025-26 budget process a Reserves Strategy and Medium-Term Financial Strategy, incorporating efficiency plan requirements, have been prepared to support decision making and the ultimate approval of the 2025-26 Budget for the LFC.
 

2.1.    The proposals included within Part Two of this report intend to reduce LFB’s overall costs and enable LFB to operate more efficiently within the constraints of its draft budget for 2025-26 and subsequent years.

3.1.    The LFC and the Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and the Fire Service are required to have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010) when taking decisions. This in broad terms involves understanding the potential impact of policy and decisions on different people, taking this into account and then evidencing how decisions were reached.

3.2.    It is important to note that consideration of the Public Sector Equality Duty is not a one-off task. The duty must be fulfilled before taking a decision, at the time of taking a decision, and after the decision has been taken.

3.3.    The protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership (but only in respect of the requirements to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination), race (ethnic or national origins, colour or nationality), religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex, and sexual orientation.

3.4.    The Public Sector Equality Duty requires decision-takers in the exercise of all their functions, to have due regard to the need to:

•    Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other prohibited conduct.

•    Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

•    Foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

3.5.    Having due regard to the need to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it involves having due regard, in particular, to the need to:

•    Remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by persons who share a relevant protected characteristic where those disadvantages are connected to that characteristic.

•    Take steps to meet the needs of persons who share a relevant protected characteristic that are different from the needs of persons who do not share it.

•    Encourage persons who share a relevant protected characteristic to participate in public life or in any other activity in which participation by such persons is disproportionately low.

3.6.    The steps involved in meeting the needs of disabled persons that are different from the needs of persons who are not disabled include, in particular, steps to take account of disabled persons’ disabilities.

3.7.    Having due regard to the need to foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it involves having due regard, in particular, to the need to:

•    tackle prejudice 

•    promote understanding.

3.8.    An initial EIA screening has been undertaken and more information about this is provided in Part Two of the report.
 

Workforce comments

4.1.    Workforce comments are set out in Part Two of this report.

    Procurement comments

4.2.    Procurement comments are set out in Part Two of this report.
Communications comments
4.3.    Communication comments are set out in Part Two of this report.
Conflicts of interest

4.4.    There are no conflicts of interest to declare from those involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision.
 

5.1.    Financial comments are set out in Part Two of this report.

6.1.    Under section 9 of the Policing and Crime Act 2017, the London Fire Commissioner (the "LFC") was established as a corporation sole with the Mayor appointing the occupant of that office. Section 1 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 states that the LFC is the fire and rescue authority for Greater London.
 
6.2.    The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 provides under sections 7 and 8 the duty to secure provision for the personnel, services and equipment necessary efficiently to meet all normal requirements; that being the personnel needed to meet the statutory functions, and section 5A provides the power to do (a) anything it considers appropriate for the purposes of the carrying-out of any of its functions (its “functional purposes”), (b) anything it considers appropriate for purposes incidental to its functional purposes, (c) anything it considers appropriate for purposes indirectly incidental to its functional purposes through any number of removes. These powers and or duties provide the statutory basis for the decision set out herein regarding the proposed decisions set out in Part Two of this report. 

6.3.    Under section 327D of the GLA Act 1999, as amended by the Policing and Crime Act 2017, the Mayor may issue to the LFC specific or general directions as to the manner in which the holder of that office is to exercise his or her functions. By direction dated 1 April 2018 (the ‘Directions’), the Mayor set out those matters, for which the LFC would require the prior approval of either the Mayor or the Deputy Mayor for Fire (the "Deputy Mayor"). 6.3 Paragraph (b) of Part 2 of that Direction requires the LFC to seek the prior approval of the Deputy Mayor before “[a] commitment to expenditure (capital or revenue) of £150,000 or above as identified in accordance with normal accounting practices…”. The legal advice on this matter is set out in Part Two of this report.

6.4.    Additional legal comments are set out in Part Two of this report.