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NATIONAL POLICE AIR SERVICE (NPAS) NATIONAL STRATEGIC BOARD (MEETING NUMBER 35)
19 October 2020 – via Teams PRESENT NAME REPRESENTING PCC Mark Burns-Williamson OBE Police and Crime Commissioner for West (MBW) – Chair Yorkshire Police – Lead Local Policing Body CC John Robins QPM (JR) Chief Constable - West Yorkshire Police T/ACC Scott Bisset (SB) NPAS Chief Operating Officer Katherine Johnson (KJ) Treasurer – West Yorkshire Office of Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Reiss (AR) Director of Policy, Strategy, Comms - West Yorkshire Combined Authority Glenn Shelley (GS) NPAS Head of Business Services Ollie Dismore (OD) NPAS Director of Operations Janine Nelson (JN) Solicitor, Legal Services, West Yorkshire Police James Cunningham (JCu) NPAS Head of Aviation Safety Jenny Walker (JW) NPAS Head of Communications & Marketing Mike James (MJa) on behalf of Finance Business Partner - West Yorkshire Ruth Langley Police PCC Dafydd Llywelyn (DL) Police and Crime Commissioner for Dyfed- Powys Police – South West Region CC Shaun Sawyer (SS) Chief Constable Devon & Cornwall Police – South West Region Peter Curran (PC) Chief Finance Officer South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner – seconded to BlueLight Commercial CC Rod Hansen (RH) Chief Constable NPCC Aviation Lead - Gloucestershire Police - South West Region
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Julian Kern (JK) Finance Lead - NPCC Aviation Programme Board T/ACC Jason Masters (JM) NPCC Aviation Programme Board Caroline Peters (CP) NPCC Aviation Programme Board Richard Brandon (RB) NPCC Aviation Programme Board Acting PCC Steve White (SW) Acting Police and Crime Commissioner for Durham - North East Region CC Jo Farrell (JF) Chief Constable, Durham Police - North East Region Gary Ridley (GR) Durham Police – North East Region PCC Peter McCall Police and Crime Commissioner for Cumbria – North West Region CC Darren Martland (DM) Cheshire Police – North West Region Robin Merrett (RM) Mayor’s Office for Police and Crime (MOPAC) DAC Laurence Taylor (LT) Metropolitan Police Service – London Region & Chair of NPAS IAG/Programme Board PCC John Campion (JC) Police and Crime Commissioner for West Mercia – Central Region Louise Williams (LW) Regional Policy Officer – Central Region DCC Rob Nixon (RN) Leicestershire Police – Central Region PCC Anthony Stansfeld (AS) Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley - South East Region ACC Dave Miller (DMi) Sussex Police – South East Region Iain Sutherland (IS) Staff Officer to ACC Dave Miller – Sussex Police – South East Region Shakila Bukhari (SBu) Policing Directorate, Home Office – NPAS Policy Lead Bethan Page-Jones (BPJ) Law Enforcement Transformation Unit Home Office Lianne Deeming (LD) Chief Executive BlueLight Commercial Jo Osborne (JO) Regional Commercial Director, BlueLight Commercial Professor Graham Braithwaite Cranfield University (GB) Simon Efford (SE) APCC Secretariat Melanie Jaundziekars (MJ) NPAS Executive Office Manager
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APOLOGIES NAME REPRESENTING Jayne Sykes Interim Chief Executive – Office of Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire Ruth Langley Finance & Commercial Services Director - West Yorkshire Police
1. ATTENDANCE AND APOLOGIES
The Chair, PCC Mark Burns-Williamson (MBW) opened the meeting and invited introductions from those joining the meeting via Teams.
Apologies were noted and recorded.
2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
CC Shaun Sawyer (SS) advised Devon and Cornwall is slightly affected by the paper produced by PCC Llywelyn in relation to service into Wales and the SW but he would remain impartial during any discussions around this specific paper.
3. MINUTES OF MEETING HELD 14 SEPTEMBER 2020
Minutes were agreed as an accurate record.
4. ACTIONS
All actions were discharged – please see Action list.
5. FIXED WING INDEPENDENT REVIEW – CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY
Professor Graham Braithwaite (GB) Cranfield University, presented his report and advised himself and Matt Greaves were given the opportunity to comment on two previous reports by the NPCC Aviation Review team to look at the fixed wing operation. GB advised there was no conflict of interest with the NPCC Aviation Review Team.
GB advised he had looked at five elements:
Financial Customer (police forces), Operations, Safety Organisation/People
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GB stated the capability of the fixed wing was much better than expected and was very impressed with what had been brought on line. GB felt that NPAS had built the capability which is something NPAS should be proud of.
GB highlighted whether there has been enough sharing and publicising of the what the capability is for and whether people realise what they are getting for a third of the cost in terms of operating costs.
GB felt that the fixed wing is being seen as an additional cost. As NPAS had taken the MD 902’s out of service this had led to savings and fixed wing is a much smaller cost than the rotary hours it replaced.
DAC Laurence Taylor (LT) raised concern on behalf of the NPAS Independent Assurance Group (IAG) around the lack of operational consultation. IAG members felt the report did not reflect the operational requirement of forces and asked if the Terms of Reference could be shared.
PCC Dafydd Llywelyn (DL) raised some of the capital costs that had gone into fixed wing and outlined the Aviation Review report talks about a capital receipt of c£2m benefit from selling the fixed wing which needs to be balanced against what the additional costs have been in terms of the investment over a number of years. DL asked if Board members were certain from an operational perspective, whether enough time has been allowed for fixed wing to embed as part of the blended fleet nationally in order to make an assessment.
GB stated if members were thinking about a change from an in-house model to a commercial model within the next couple of years, it would be more reason to keep the fixed wing and get value from the asset before potentially disposing of it.
RH stated if the aeroplanes are still in the fleet next year and have not been paid for and embraced by a region as part of their User Requirement; this will mean a distributed cost to all regions of approx. £350k which is a concern and need to ensure we can afford it.
PCC Peter McCall (PM) stated he did not feel that the user requirement had been articulated sufficiently from an operational perspective and that needs to be led with the challenge of how it is funded. Jo Farrell (JF) stated the level of OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE OPERATIONAL
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detail and work done by NPAS and the Aviation Review Team around the User Requirement is very detailed and a lot of consultation based around flying hours etc has taken place. JF felt that regions in the main have agreed their position but should not detract from the detailed work that has been done combining both operational use and financial implications for forces which allows us to plan moving forward.
Shakila Bukhari (SBu) asked Board members if any thought had been given around the commercial aspects of reselling, the need to de-modify and how that ambition to reinvest into fleet might happen.
6. NPCC AVIATION REVIEW UPDATE
CC Rod Hansen (RH) and T/ACC Jason Masters (JM) presented the report.
JM advised NPAS have been looking at ways of making efficiency savings and have identified around £2.3m worth of savings from which the service could lease a couple of new helicopters. Additionally with the ongoing work on the User Requirement a further £1m of savings is available to return back to regions due to the reduction in flying hours required by the regions.
JM advised the User Requirement is fundamental should Board members decide on a direct cost charging model as the proposal would end up being a three year commitment subject to a review after the first twelve months. JM stated the regional requests have not highlighted a need for the fixed wing aircraft now within the NPAS fleet. The North East is the only region that has not settled on its User Requirement. The fixed wing may be of use to the North East region (and Wales) and they are currently assessing the affordability and capability of the fixed wing assets.
PCC Dafydd Llywelyn (DL) highlighted that discussions were ongoing in Wales and the SW.
T/ACC Scott Bisset informed members that discussions had not yet been finalised in the Eastern, South East and North Eastern regions. Those ongoing discussions were focused on the operating model, affordability and apportionment of costs. It was important to separate the User Requirement from the operating model as there is a risk of them being conflated.
Ollie Dismore (OD) advised there will be a capability gap between what NPAS can deliver now with the current fleet against what that User Requirement is and it is important that it is tracked through the system. OD stated all the indications given to the Home Office and forces is around poor performance due to lack of availability and need to get through the following stages:
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The here and now and what NPAS can deliver from April 2021 once the optimised service model is settled; what the interim looks like as new fleet comes on line; 2026/27 for the latter aircraft is the end state against the User Requirement and will need to revisit this process annually to ensure the User Requirement is still valid
Board members were invited to consider and agree each of the specific strategic operational preferences made by the NPCC/Chief Constables Council:-
Recommendations:
4.1.1 The refreshed UR, subject to a 3-year commitment and an ambition for implementation by April 2021.
OD advised NPAS had carried out a further round of discussions with individual IAG representatives which completed last week and were reported to the IAG on the 16 October.
At these meetings, NPAS confirmed their User Requirement which covered response times; base operating hours; flying hours and preferences for base locations so these are now recorded as settled positions.
IAG representatives were also presented with the outputs of performance modelling for the options they had put forward – with outputs at national, regional and individual force level and given direct access to the modeller to pose further ‘what ifs’. The purpose of this was to both sense check the User Requirement and to convert that information into a proposed new operating model and performance standard for NPAS to deliver against - using the assets currently available in the first instance.
OD advised the modelling used 4 years of actual demand data, whether satisfied or not to smooth out the type and location of previous incidents and the last one year for volume and accurate aircraft and crew availability.
NPAS have carried out further sensitivity analysis against population to verify the demand projections but availability only represents the here and now so will need to be revisited regularly as new aircraft come on stream and availability improves.
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OD advised from this latest work, 3 Regions (London, West Midlands and the North West) are sufficiently settled and have no critical interdependencies and recommended to proceed with implementation now. The remaining regions are going through further iterations to settle their service delivery expectations now that projected costs are available. Two of these include options with and without fixed-wing in the mix.
A number of regional groupings of Chiefs met last week and more are meeting this week to resolve. For the most part these are resolvable regionally, with the proposed funding model allowing for the movement of aircraft across regional boundaries. The overall changes noted see NPAS moving from a ubiquitous 24-hour operation to 7 24-hour; 3 18-hour and 5-12 hour bases with attendant changes in ability to support across regions when those bases are closed.
CC John Robins (JR) advised from a North East perspective that the Chief Constables and PCC’s would not accept the full cost of £2.8m being funded through the fixed wing provision and the cost would have to go somewhere at some stage if it is to continue.
LT advised from an IAG perspective demand is unlikely to change significantly and need to understand what the future operating model might look like to meet that demand – all accept the current fleet is suboptimal to deliver the user requirements. LT stated from a London perspective that should the fixed wing be kept in the fleet the MPS would not be prepared to pick up the cost for an asset that is unlikely to be flown over London.
SS advised he wanted to represent the South West position around St Athan, Almondsbury and Exeter. If there is a change in that he would need to understand the cost base and provision as well as the community impact of that – if it is more cost effective and better for the communities then he would be content with this.
DL stated he felt the Cardiff fixed wing option provides a significant opportunity for the whole South West region and into the Southern West area of the Midlands.
Resolved:
The Board noted the distinction between the User Requirement and proposals for the NPAS operating model. Board members noted the update, agreed the User Requirement in principle and the direction of travel on the operating model. Business cases would be required for any changes to the operating model before they would be agreed by the NSB. Members agreed to an ambition for implementation by April 2021 subject OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE OPERATIONAL
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to appropriate organisational change processes and transition arrangements. It was requested that this be returned to the December Board once further work has been done to determine the operating model. The Board agreed for NPAS to conduct more detailed work on the business cases for proposed changes in the North West, West Midlands and London regions and noted that final decisions were still awaited from Chief Constables from a number of regions. (This update also addressed Agenda item 7).
Action 35.1 - NPAS to present a finalised User Requirement and proposed operating model to the Board in December.
4.1.2 A commitment to reinvest savings (£2.3M) accrued from internal efficiencies back into fleet replacement by April 2021 – Agreed
4.1.3 Progression of preparatory work to procure new fleet in partnership with BLC – Agreed. BlueLight Commercial are to progress this work with the support of NPAS.
4.1.4 To set a clear expectation to receive the first tranche of new aircraft into the fleet from April 2022 – Agreed as an ‘aspiration’ rather than ‘expectation’ to receive the first tranche of new aircraft into the fleet from April 2022 - milestones on how this is going to be achieved are to be presented back to the Board following the preparatory work with BLC. It was noted that this of course will be impacted by the timeframe of Government decisions on fleet replacement.
4.1.5 Support the completion of the ‘make, buy’ assessment by BLC and other pre-procurement preparatory work in relation to a commercial option, with fleet. This to include exploration of hybrid models. – Agreed – Board members were invited to support the completion of the ‘make, buy’ assessment by BLC – Board members provided their support to BLC to undertake this work.
4.1.6 With regard to the further development of potential commercial partnering models, the Board are invited to assign procurement responsibility to BLC, whilst also ensuring that there is clear governance and decision making authority, with reporting lines and operational programme leadership that avoid conflicts of OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE OPERATIONAL
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interest - Board Members agreed to assign procurement responsibility to BLC – NPAS stated they would want to see clear governance and decision making authorities. A meeting is taking place on 21 October convened by BLC with a view to exploring this further and reporting back to the Board in December. Board members nominated PCC Llywelyn to lead a sub group.
4.1.7 Commission the production of a costed fleet replacement plan that includes a contingency for the current CSR bid being unsuccessful – Agreed
4.1.8 Support the implementation of DCC from April 2021 – Agreed subject to consultation with PCC’s and PACTS with a conclusion at the December Board meeting.
4.1.9 Formalise the Service Providers Board – Agreed in principle - Board members agreed the review of strategic governance with a working group that involves the Combined Authority and other key stakeholders to move this work forward. SS stated he would like to see a paper with a timeline of what that looks like, what leverage and unelected authority has on any decision and ideally the decision taken before May 2021. MBW pointed out that the transfer of NPAS was part of the Mayoral Combined Authority devolution deal supported by the Home Office and that Combined Authority representation would now be key to any further governance agreements in the short to medium term.
4.1.10 Complete an early review of strategic governance arrangements with a view to adopting the practices set out by the independent working group, intended to reduce risks for the lead force – RH suggested keeping the existing NPCC working group. MBW and PCC John Campion (JC) is to link in with and involve the APCC to co- ordinate this work further.
Action 35.2 – JC is to contact Susannah Hancock to involve the APCC to lead the work relating to governance through the establishment of a working group. MBW is to link in with JC as to how this is moved forward.
4.1.11 Re-visit the governance recommendations made by the NPCC in the Aviation Programme report of May 2020.
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Board members agreed that these considerations should be included by the working group co-ordinated by the APCC.
7. NPAS USER REQUIREMENT UPDATE
See update on NPCC Aviation Programme recommendations above.
8. UPDATE FROM THE HOME OFFICE
SBu advised the spending review is still expected to be a multi-year review and a report on that is due around mid-November. SBu stated it had been widely reported that the spending review is going to be tight due to the economic situation and are doing all they can to ensure the bid is successful.
Combined authority – SBu stated a letter regarding the transfer of NPAS to a Mayoral combined authority is to be sent to MBW which responds to the points raised by PCC’s.
SBu advised this was her last Board meeting. MBW thanked SBu for her involvement and input over the last two years and wished her well in her next role.
SBU thanked Board members for all their support and stated she had learned a great deal and hoped she had got the Board to where it needed to be with regards to fleet replacement and hoped that Board members receive the news they have worked so hard for.
9. FLEET REPLACEMENT FINAL BUSINESS CASE
Glenn Shelley (GS) advised the Fleet Replacement Business Case had been developed with various teams from the Home Office and also with contributions from the NPCC Aviation Review Team.
Resolved: Board members approved the Fleet Replacement Business Case for submission to the Home Office
PCC Anthony Stansfeld (AS) stated he did not support the business case for 10 helicopters and felt it was more than necessary.
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SBu advised that as Board members had signed off the Business Case this will now be formally submitted to the Home Office. SBu and MBW thanked GS, SB and KJ for all their hard work relating to the Business Case.
10. GRENFELL IOPC REPORT
T/ACC Scott Bisset (SB) reminded members that the issues raised regarding NPAS were in relation to the ability of the aircraft to broadcast imagery to partner agencies, particularly London Fire Brigade.
NPAS have ensured that every aircraft is fitted with a technical update which means that they default to the National Emergency Services channel which can be received by partner agencies anywhere in the country (should they have the equipment to do so).
SB advised that it is anticipated that the final aircraft will be fitted with the technical update by the beginning of November. A formal closing report will be submitted to the Board once all the work has been completed.
Resolved: Board members noted the report
11. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
JR thanked SBu on behalf of the Board for her commitment, enthusiasm and challenges back to the Board and wished her will in her new role.
Date and time of next meeting: 2 December 2020 - 13:00 – 16:00
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