Membership
The Customer Group membership is currently:
- Nick Baldwin, Independent Chairman
- Trevor Pethick, Independent Member
- Craig Woolhouse, Head of Flood Risk Management Process, Environment Agency
- Alan Goodwin, Deputy Chief Constable, Derbyshire Constabulary - ACPO
- Damian Smith, Chief Fire Officer and Chief Executive, Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service - CFOA
- Peter Tallantire, Deputy Head Civil Contingencies Secretariat, Cabinet Office
- Derek Turner, Traffic Operations Director, Highways Agency
- Ian Walford, Head of Fire and Civil Contingencies, Scottish Executive
- Tom Griffin, Retired Local Authority CEO – Local Government Association
- Neil Jones, Assembly Resilience Co-ordinator – Welsh Assembly
Supported and advised by:
- Richard Chapman, Editorial Manager BBC Weather Centre
- Alyson Bedford, Head of PWSCG Secretariat – MoD
- Clare Simpson, Support Manager PWSCG Secretariat
The Public Weather Service (PWS) Customer Group acts as the customer on behalf of the public for free-at-point-of-use weather services and ensures that these services are aligned to the operational needs of Public Sector users of PWS outputs. It also acts as guardian on behalf of public sector users of the Met Office's underpinning operational capability. It is responsible for setting its requirement and specifying its outputs, supporting research and development to meet future requirements, and providing independent advice and recommendation to the Under Secretary of State for Defence to enable formal agreement of the PWS Customer-Supplier Agreement.
Annual Report 2007/8
Download PWS Customer Group Annual Report 2007/8 (PDF, 104 kb)
Responsibilities
Specific responsibilities include:
- setting the current and future requirement of the PWS and specifying its outputs;
- ensuring appropriate inclusion of international commitments within the PWS;
- conducting or commissioning appropriate consultation and market research to ensure:
- representation of interests of professional partners and public users of the PWS;
- representation of interests of public sector customers for whom the Met Office provides direct services using a defined baseline of PWS capability and data;
- conducting or commissioning appropriate financial or technical scrutiny to ensure:
- delivery of value for money in relation to the quality of service required;
- efficiency;
- setting performance indicators and associated targets;
- robustly monitoring performance and delivery against specified outputs;
- agreeing funding for services based on past performance and present requirements;
- providing support for Met Office bids for additional funding from alternative sources, as appropriate, to enable further development of the service;
- considering and endorsing proposals for in-period changes within the PWS as required;
- maintaining appropriate level of communication with the Met Office Executive and Owner's Council.
Relationships and lines of communication
The Under Secretary of State acts on behalf of the Defence Secretary as Owner, and is advised by the Met Office Owner's Council. This council is the means through which the Met Office reports performance and seeks top-level guidance from the Ministry. The Chairman of the PWSCG is a member of the Owner's Council and reports to the Secretary of State for Defence through MoD 2nd Permanent Under Secretary.
