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Minutes of the hundred and forty fifth meeting of the Football Licensing Authority held on 11 December 2007 at Harcourt House, London
Present
Mr AJ Speed - Chairman
Mr B Batson
Miss P Carvell
Dr J Dickie
Mr J Garner
Dr B Robertson
Ms J Summerell
Mr J Woodrow
Mr J R K de Quidt - Chief Executive
In attendance
Mr KD Sears
Mr RK Chevalier for item 5
1 Minutes of the previous meeting
1.1 Following discussion of item 11.1 of the minutes of the hundred and forty fourth meeting it was agreed that the first sentence of the final paragraph should be deleted and in the second sentence “negations” replaced with “negotiations”. Subject to these changes the minutes were agreed and signed by the Chairman.
2 Matters arising.
No items were raised
3 Chief Executive’s report (FLA(07)35)
Following the failure to persuade any of the MP’s who were successful in the ballot to introduce Private Members’ Bills, to pick up the one designed to expand our role, DCMS would be exploring the prospect of piggybacking onto another Bill. The Board were assured that DCMS remained committed to the expansion of the FLA’s role. In response to questions as to whether the Minister could not simply announce that he was offering the FLA’s assistance to other sports in the way his predecessor had offered the FLA’s services to UEFA, it was explained that the advice being provided to UEFA was on general principles and the FLA could already offer similar advice to other sports if approached to do so. Indeed, this was already happening in cricket.
3.2 It was noted that DCMS had still failed to publish the results of the public consultation exercise concerning the expansion of the FLA’s role. Examination of the DCMS web site revealed that across the department 22 consultation exercises took place in 2007. In the case of 18 of these exercises the department undertook to publish a summary of the results within 3 months but only did so in 5 cases. The board asked that DCMS be reminded of its commitment to publish the results of the consultation exercise concerning the future role of the FLA.
3.3 SkillsActive had recently announced the award of the 100,000th national vocational qualification (NVQ) within the active leisure and learning sector had been awarded to a steward working at Old Trafford. The FLA was continuing to assist the football authorities’ to revise and update their resource material which underpinned the NVQs and VRQs.
3.4 In addition to the 42 applications for the post of inspector received by the closing date, 3 applications were delayed due to incorrect postage being affixed. As the 3 applications were posted before the closing date they would be considered and if any of the candidates met the criteria they would be added to the 7 already invited for interview. A further 36 candidates had formally registered an interest in being considered for future vacancies.
It was agreed that the board would be supplied with a breakdown of the ethnic background of the 45 applicants for the post
Action: Mrs Rutherford to provide a breakdown of the applicants ethnic backgrounds.
3.5 Our mid term rent review was due in 2005. Following lengthy negotiations the increase had been reduced to just £1000pa.
3.6 The board were advised that John Levison had been admitted to Queenscourt Hospice.
4 Standing in seated areas – FLA response locally (FLA(07)34)
4.1 The Premier League had not yet finalised the terms of reference of their proposed review. However, they have undertaken to share the report with the FLA along with all other members of the standing working group.
4.2 The behaviour of the crowd was an important factor which needed to be acknowledged. The board were reassured that this was already covered in inspector’s reports. The board agreed the guidelines on the FLA’s response at local level. These would be promulgated to Inspectors at their next meeting.
5 Health and safety at work – annual review (FLA(07)36)
5.1 In discussion of the paper the following points were made.
5.2 Subject to receiving clarification on the FLA’s policy covering the personal safety of inspectors during match day visits the board were content that the existing policies remained in place.
Action: Chief Executive to review policy on inspectors’ personal safety.
6 Injury Statistics (FLA(07)39)
6.1 This item was held over to the January meeting.
7 Green Guide – post consultation draft (FLA(07) 37 and 38)
7.1 Apart from the annexes, the revision of the Green Guide was complete. The board identified minor issues in sections 9.6, 20.4 and 20.5 which it was agreed should be reconsidered by the working group.
Action: Working group to review sections 9.6, 20.4 and 20.5.
8 Persons invited to speak at Board meetings (FLA(07)40)
8.1 The general principle of inviting people to address the FLA on topics of particular interest was agreed. Once topics had been identified consideration would be given to identifying the appropriate persons to invite and whether they should meet with the board or meet jointly with the inspectorate.
9 Any other business
9.1 Consideration should be given to planning post publication events to follow the official launch of the revised Green Guide. It was suggested that this should include a session at the next meeting of Premier and Football League Chief Executives which would provide the opportunity to remind clubs at a senior level about their responsibilities for spectator safety.
Action:Green Guide working group to consider post publication strategy.
FLA Secretariat
December 2007
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