Minutes of the Resources Committee – 29 October 2024

Present

Members

• Lindsey Miller (Chair)
• Keith Dargie
• Marlene Anderson
• Sarah Carter
• Gavin Anderson
• Thomas Lindie
• Jonathan Shebioba
• Karen Burell
• Stacey Law

LM welcomed the group 

The minutes of the meeting held on were agreed.

RC Paper 40 was noted. 

It was agreed that Action 22(24) (Accommodation for COPFS staff seconded to The Hague) will remain on the tracker for periodic update/review. 

MA presented RC Paper 41 (2024) 

Highlights included: 

Vacancy management continues to be an essential component in achieving required budget efficiencies and savings.  

The Workforce Planning Group continues to closely monitor all recruitment. 

Utilisation of a workforce management plan and a defined authorisation path facilitates the process for managing staff resources aligned with budget spend controls. 

Non staffing costs continue to be impacted by inflation. 

There have been significant increases in kennelling costs coupled with a rise in dogs requiring to be accommodated through legislative extensions of prohibited breeds. Time required to carry out breed profile analysis also impacts on costs. Work is ongoing to mitigate these factors as far as possible.  

Spending continues to be closely monitored with stringent controls on official travel and attendance at conferences and training events. 

Controls are in place to ensure that estates maintenance costs are minimised by amalgamating job call outs for each building. Single incident call out fees are confined only to instances where specific Health and Safety or other statutory implications have been identified. 

Increased volume of throughput of High Court work to tackle backlogs impacts on the number of expert witness reports and court attendance required. 

Postmortem and Pathology costs continue to increase. 

2025-26 and 2026-27 COPFS budget requirements have been submitted to SG. Clarification workshops and bilaterals are planned in advance of the SG Budget announcement in December. The Capital Commission for 2025-26 and 2026-27 capital funding have also  been submitted with results anticipated early December.   

Workshop for the COPFS Estates  Transformation Strategy being developed. Participants will include JS KD and MA.  Outcomes will be reported to the Committee 

General update in relation to: 

COPFS West of Scotland Estates Plan. 

Premises lease end dates. 

Renovation works. 

General discussion followed. 

KD gave a verbal update. 

Workforce Plan being developed incorporating spending controls, budget planning, workflow elements, processes and Corporate Key Performance Indicators. 

Draft plan should be concluded by January for publication in April 2025. 

Owing to availability issues the date of the next meeting is still to be announced.