I have seen that reaction in the committee previously, so it was not a surprise.
There is pretty much a direct read-across from the previous discussion about the Police Authority and the chief constable. The Fire and Rescue Service is set up in a way that is intended to provide a healthy tension between the board, which is made up of non-executive people who do not know how to run a fire service professionally, and the professional managers. The report to which you refer simply said that those things are fundamentally important and that, if we want a good and healthy organisation, that is a good way to set it up. We are interested in how effectively the two bodies work together.
The conversation is exactly the same as the one that we had about operational autonomy and independence versus scrutiny and challenge. The chief officer and his team need to make judgments and decisions on many things, but almost all of them—or all—are open to challenge and should be explainable to the fire board, whose job it is to hold the chief officer to account. We are interested in that.
To reflect on John Finnie’s experience, in the past, we had to deal with eight sets of relationships, whereas now it is just one set. In a sense, life has become a bit easier for us. There is no doubt that such things are long term; they are all about human relationships and building confidence in the different bodies, which is why we say that we will take an on-going interest in how those things work out.