Download FRS Management Board Meeting

FRS Management Board Meeting
Monday 24th October 2005
10:00h, FRS Marine Laboratory
Aberdeen
MINUTES
Present:
Robin Cook (Chairman)
Ron Stagg
Colin Moffat
Trevor Hastings (replaced by Pauline Munro from item 7)
John Armstrong (representing Malcolm Beveridge)
Alejandro Gallego (representing Bill Turrell)
Catherine Kite (representing Morag McCall)
Pamela Reid
Alastair Johnstone (Secretary)
1. Introduction and Apologies
The Chairman welcomed members to the meeting. Apologies were received from Malcolm
Beveridge, Bill Turrell and Morag McCall.
2.
Action Points arising from MB meeting on 13 September 2005
1.
FRS Strategy Board meeting. A meeting of the Strategy Board is currently being
arranged for January/February 2006.
2.
LIMS. Collin Moffat and Dave Keay have discussed the issue of LIMS licences and can
offer 5 user licences to others within FRS. Malcolm Beveridge is keen to use the system
but additional server capacity in the Freshwater Laboratory may be required. Once the
technical issues have been resolved the FRS Freshwater Laboratory will hopefully be able
to make use of the spare capacity.
3.
Research Vessel Berthing costs. In the event that research vessels are not required for
cruises Marr’s reported that they would stand the vessels off to avoid berthing charges.
4.
Finance Training Provision. It was reported that training from the SE is being
considered and several options have been identified. Pamela Reid and Catherine Kite will
select the appropriate course(s) for FRS staff.
5.
FRS Working Group and Capital Budget Allocations. Working Group nominees will
meet on 4th November 2005. If any nominee cannot attend they should deputise an
alternative member of staff from their Programme.
6.
Agency Key Targets. The Agency Key targets submission was issued to David Wilson
by the agreed deadline.
1
7.
AE Programme Text from the AOP. Annual Operating Plan text has been amended by
Colin Moffat as appropriate in light of changes in FSAS contracts.
8.
Draft Staff Survey. Morag McCall provided a draft copy of the staff survey to Ron Stagg
for discussion with PDs in advance of issue to staff.
9.
Completion of Staff Survey. PDs had discussed and encouraged completion of the
SE/FRS staff survey with Group Leaders.
10.
Priority Recruitment Cases. PDs had submitted cases to HR and these would be
discussed under a separate agenda point.
11.
Restructuring Project Board. Robin Cook had established the Board and would now
take it forward.
12.
FRS Accommodation Improvement Strategy. The Capital Allocation group will
consider accommodation strategy within their remit.
13.
FRS Policy on Drugs and Alcohol. A meeting between Robin Cook, Ron Stagg, Colin
Sellar and Morag McCall had been held and Colin Sellar was taking the initiative forward.
Action: Colin Sellar to issue interim FRS policy on drugs and alcohol.
3. Finance, Human Resources and Administration
a) Finance
It was reported that the FRS budget had increased to £24.768M. Additional resources had
been made available from SE to cover the costs of the ICES Conference, Fisheries Trusts, the
running costs of setting up the capital projects for the new research vessel and building, and to
cover the costs of the observer programme. The resulting budget projects an underspend of
£130K, however, £70K is ear-marked as a contribution for the SE pension fund. The overspend
on premises, transport and vessel costs, largely because of the price of fuel continuing to
increase, remains at £500K. It was also noted that projected income has fallen from £3.3M to
£3.1M which has been reported to SEERAD Finance.
The Running Cost budget for 06/07 was discussed in light of the continuing fluctuation of fuel
costs. The Board recommended that Pamela Reid contact SEERAD Finance to discuss running
cost provision to cover the likely increase in the fuel bill for FRS. It was noted that because of
the recruitment freeze the staff budget had been cut to just over £11M for the future, saving
approximately £700K in the current financial year. The Agency budget next year is likely to be
£24.2M and a budget profile is needed, corrected for inflation (+~2.5%).
Action: Pamela Reid to contact SEERAD Finance to discuss running cost provision in future in
view of continuing rise in fuel costs.
b) FRS Annual Operating Plan 2005-06
A final draft of the FRS Annual Operating Plan has been published on the Intranet. Hard copies
will be produced once the targets have been formally approved by the Minister. Tracy Moir will
supply copies to PDs and staff on request.
2
c) Annual Science Staff Review
Eleven applications from staff have been received for consideration in the current ASSR 2005
round. A budget of £5K has been agreed by the Board to fund the resulting progressions. A sift
board will be established in the next two weeks to rank applications and recommend candidates
for interview.
d) Business Planning 2006-07
It was reported that the business planning round will start earlier this year, hopefully producing a
draft budget to report to the Management Board meeting in December. Preliminary papers will
be issued by the end of October to PDs and GLs to aid budget preparation with returns
expected by mid to late November.
4. Capital Projects
a) FRV Alba
The Project Board have ranked the tenders for construction of the new research vessel and
have met with the potential contractor. A minute will be issued to Ministers by the project board
recommending a contractor and seeking approval to proceed with construction of the new
research vessel by the end of October 2005.
b) Building Project
A brief prepared by FRS requesting approval to proceed with the building project had been seen
by the Minister who is content that the project commences. The cost is estimated between
£10.4M and £15.7M. The project will now proceed with the appointment of a project manager
and a project design team to obtain a much more detailed specification and accurate cost. It
was reported that Aberdeen City Council are offering to sell FRS adjacent development land at
a cost of £325K. Solicitors to conduct conveyancing on behalf of FRS (Scottish Ministers) have
been appointed.
5. Visit by Richard Wakeford to FRS Marine Laboratory on 15th November 2005
Richard Wakeford, head of SEERAD, is planning to visit the FRS Marine Laboratory on
Tuesday 15 November. A programme for his visit by will be prepared by Alastair Johnstone. It
was suggested that appropriate topics would be climate change issues (Mike Heath/Bill Turrell);
the AAAH Programme to produce a presentation on the requirement for a new building and
research aquarium facilities, possibly with a tour of the existing FCB; the AE Programme to give
a presentation on the grounding of the Anglian Sovereign in relation to pollution. It was also
suggested that Engineering and appropriate scientific staff demonstrate marine sampling
equipment such as Aries and sediment samplers. A possible visit to Temora and discussion of
the coastal monitoring work from Stonehaven Bay, was also suggested.
Action: Alastair Johnstone to draft provisional programme prior to Richard Wakeford’s visit on
15 November.
6. Priority Recruitment Cases and Regradings
A list of priority recruitment cases and regradings were considered by the Board. Six FRS
funded posts and 1 DTI funded post for recruitment were approved by the Board. The next
3
review of priority recruitment will take place at the Board meeting in January 2006. PDs should
submit one page business cases complete with costs information to HR in advance of the
January Board meeting.
Four post regradings were also approved. It was agreed that the regarding cases would be
formally approved with effect from the date of the Board meeting. Specific
regrading/recruitment queries from the FM/ME Programme will be discussed separately by
Robin Cook and Bill Turrell.
Action: Robin Cook/Bill Turrell to discuss FM/ME staff regrading/recruitment queries.
7. ERDM Proposal
The ERDM papers (MB0510101) were considered by the Board. It was noted that an estimated
£27K revenue cost is attributable to the scoping study, depending on specific requirements.
After the initial capital investment an ERDM system would have on-going running costs
attributable to licensing costs, support desk costs, training costs for new staff, and maintenance
costs, estimated to be 18% of the software price. This could result in an annual running cost of
approximately £200K. Although initial software license purchases can be capitalised,
subsequent annual licence fees would be costed against revenue. The capital cost of installing
the system for FRS would be approximately £500K spread over the first 3 financial years. The
Board agreed to proceed with the scoping study proposed.
Action: Ron Stagg/Pamela Reid to proceed with ERDM scoping study.
8. Support Services and Directorate SLAs
Draft SLAs and the covering paper (MB0510102) prepared by Ron Stagg were considered. It
was recommended that Board members send comments to Ron Stagg before the November
Management Board meeting. In principle the proposals were accepted by the Board and it was
noted that these should also be issued for discussion at GL meetings to ensure that the draft
captures the needs of customers.
Action: PDs to consult staff re draft SLAs and send comments to Ron Stagg by 11 November
2005.
9. Progress of Balanced Scorecard
Discussion of this topic was deferred to the next meeting. It was noted that a paper to inform
the Board will be circulated by Ron Stagg early November.
Action: Ron Stagg to prepare paper for circulation to Board Members reporting progress with
the Balanced Scorecard by 11 November.
10. Quarterly Report on Agency Key Performance Targets
4
The Agency largely appears to be making good progress towards achieving its key performance
targets. However, fuel costs have increased which consequently affects the research vessel
operating costs target. The number of published Information Leaflets is also below predicted
target at this stage and PDs are invited to suggest additional titles for production. Colin Moffat
reported he is considering 5 additional leaflets and John Armstrong intimated that the
Freshwater laboratory had also some new ideas and proposals.
It was noted that in 2004-05 the Agency achieved all the Key Agency Targets and also a
successful ICES ASC conference and participation in Doors Open Day. The Board considered
appropriate rewards for staff. It was agreed that an extra days leave would be given to all staff
which may be carried forward into the following year if staff are unable to take the allowance.
Action: PDs to consider proposals for new or revised Information Leaflets and advise Katherine
MacPherson or Sarah Heath.
11. Quality Management : Quarterly Progress Report
Colin Moffat presented the Quarterly Quality Management Report prepared by Gavin Grewar. A
list of non-conformities was noted with Groups identified to complete these within one month.
Progress with internal audits was also detailed. The UKAS inspectors had been encouraged by
the FRS system and its operation and considered that the quality system was working well
overall. However, the quality system needs to be widened and rolled out across FRS but this
may not be specifically UKAS accreditation.
Action: PDs to ensure appropriate staff are identified for completion of non-conformities
identified in the Quality Management report and to encourage the relevant staff to complete their
assigned internal audits.
12. Directors’ Monthly reports
Directorate
It was noted that the Computer Users Group required appointment of a representative from the
Fisheries Management Programme. It was proposed that Alejandro Gallego cover issues on
behalf of both ME and FM. Deadline for decommissioning the remaining VAX server was raised
and the Board agreed that the server should be taken out of service as soon as possible. It was
recommended that the FOISA issue raised under the Library report re confidentiality statements
should be referred to the next meeting of the FOISA group. Results of a top ten journals survey
completed by the FRS Library were considered by the Board. It was agreed that there is a need
for a process to decide FRS journals policy and the level of resource needed. It was agreed
that a Library Committee should be set up to establish the overall strategy for the FRS library
service.
Action: Ron Stagg to establish a Library Committee to review policy and advise on journal
subscriptions.
Christmas staff event. The Board agreed that an informal staff get-together on the morning of
22nd December would be arranged at the FRS Marine Laboratory Aberdeen. The Freshwater
Laboratory will make separate arrangements for their staff.
5
Support Services
It was reported that the SE is reducing the HR staff core by 50%. The HR concerns raised by
FRS were noted by the Board.
The corporate decision making process will be reviewed by the internal auditors week
commencing 31st October. A further visit commencing 7th November will consider vessel
management and programming.
AAAH
It was noted that the AAAH Programme Visiting Group would attend to review the Programme
during the period 15th-18th November 2005.
Freshwater Laboratory
The T&S costs for inviting external speakers to give presentations within the FRS seminars
programme were noted and it was agreed that funding would be provided on an ad hoc basis. It
was noted that in some cases there appears to be an overlap in research commissioning
between SEPA and FRS. The issue has been raised at the AE Programme Forward Look
meeting with policy customers. The implications of the Water Framework Directive and the
possible expansion of SEPA’s role were considered.
FM/ME Programme
The new ROAMEs had been accepted at the Forward Look meeting.
Comments on Support Services requests: If requests seem unreasonable GLs and staff should
advise SS of problems and defer supply of information. Future requests would be timed in
relation to business processes where possible.
Restructuring. All information currently available on the restructuring proposal has been
provided to staff. The next stage is a formal meeting of the Restructuring Board to discuss and
start the full staff consultation process. Robin Cook intimated that he will attend a future FM GL
meeting to discuss specific staff concerns.
Action: Robin Cook to attend future FM GL meeting to discuss FRS restructuring proposal.
13. EPWG Issues
a) Awareness seminar. A seminar to the Management Board on the topic of environmental
awareness to be presented by Stewart King from Environmental Engineers Ltd was considered.
It was agreed that the talk should be arranged on the date of a future MB meeting in Aberdeen
and invite other staff who may wish to attend. It was proposed the seminar should start at
10am, deferring the Board meeting until after the talk had been given.
Action: EPWG (Bob Fowler) to arrange seminar on environmental awareness to be given to
Board members and other interested staff on 20 December 2005 at 10am in ML Lecture
Theatre.
b) Environmental Management System. The Board considered the implementation of a
formal Environmental Management System (EMS) for FRS (paper MB0510113). To clarify the
effectiveness of such a system for the Agency a cost/benefit analysis of the EMS is required
and should be prepared by the FRS Environmental Protection Working Group.
6
Action: Colin Moffat to consider preparation of a cost/benefit analysis of an EMS by the FRS
EPWG.
14. AOB
No items arising.
15. Next Management Board meeting
Tuesday 22nd November 2005 at Freshwater Laboratory Pitlochry.
Alastair Johnstone
28 October 2005
7
Action Points from FRS MB meeting 24 October 2005
1. Colin Sellar to issue interim FRS policy on drugs and alcohol.
2. Pamela Reid to contact SEERAD Finance to discuss running cost provision in future in view
of continuing rise in fuel costs.
3. Alastair Johnstone to draft provisional programme prior to Richard Wakeford’s visit on 15
November.
4. Robin Cook/Bill Turrell to discuss FM/ME staff regrading proposal.
5. Ron Stagg/Pamela Reid to proceed with ERDM scoping study.
6. PDs to consult staff re draft SLAs and send comments to Ron Stagg by 11 November 2005.
7. Ron Stagg to prepare paper for circulation to Board Members reporting progress with the
Balanced Scorecard by 11 November.
8. PDs to consider proposals for new or revised Information Leaflets and advise Katherine
MacPherson or Sarah Heath.
9. PDs to ensure appropriate staff are identified for completion of non-conformities identified in
the Quality Management report.
10. Ron Stagg to establish a Library Committee to review policy and advise on journal
subscriptions.
11. Robin Cook to attend future FM GL meeting to discuss FRS restructuring proposal.
12. EPWG (Bob Fowler) to arrange seminar on environmental awareness to be given to Board
members and other interested staff on 20 December 2005 at 10am in ML Lecture Theatre.
13. Colin Moffat to consider preparation of a cost/benefit analysis of an EMS by the FRS
EPWG.
8