Meeting of the Parliament 20 January 2016
First of all, Presiding Officer, I must apologise to you and the minister, because I am due at a meeting of the cross-party group on violence against women at 5.30.
However, I wanted to speak in this debate, and I congratulate Dave Stewart on lodging the motion and giving us an opportunity to raise important issues on behalf of firefighters, who, as we all know, put their lives on the line every day not out of heroism but through an absolute commitment to their profession and our communities. I also want to express support and respect for the Fire Brigades Union not only for its great work in this country but for its ethos of international solidarity, as illustrated by its on-going work to support the firefighters of Nablus.
The least firefighters deserve is to feel that their service is supported, valued and prioritised. I agree with Christian Allard that the VAT issue is important, but it cannot be used as an excuse for not addressing the problems that are highlighted in the motion.
In the midst of the recent havoc caused by storm Desmond, the FBU issued a call for cuts to services to be halted, and it said that a significant reduction in firefighter numbers would hamper fire and rescue service responses to major events as well as have an effect on more routine work. Various people have dealt with the numbers; as Graeme Pearson said, the numbers are down 400 since 2010 and 300 since the establishment of the single service. Of course, the result is an increasing reliance on overtime and, as Dave Stewart has reminded us, appliances being taken out of service.
Matt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU, put it this way:
“The Scottish Government told us that shifting to the single fire and rescue service would protect front line services but since then we have seen further cuts and job losses ... Firefighters are proud to serve our communities. They want to be out there saving lives and making life safer for people but cuts on this scale inevitably undermine what we are trying to do.”
We have to address the problems. We can express different views on who is to blame, but that is not really the issue; the issue is highlighting the problems and the Government taking responsibility for an area in which it is clearly the responsible Government when it comes to taking action to address the problems.
In a submission to the Justice Committee, which I think Dave Stewart referred to, the FBU went into some of the problems in more detail. It talked about not only the number of firefighters but the control room closures, which have resulted in fewer staff dealing with more calls, and the increasing incident response times, as a result of which it called for national response standards.
The increasing incident response times are obviously mainly related to reductions in personnel, but a lack of appropriate equipment is also an issue. I was interested to read about some of the problems with equipment in the report entitled “Response & Resilience: Review of Specialist Equipment”, which was presented to a committee of the City of Edinburgh Council in February of last year. Some equipment was said to be
“below an acceptable standard for a national fire and rescue service”,
and reference was made to inconsistencies in the type and standard of equipment across former regional service areas. The single service will offer positive advantages in dealing with some of those inconsistencies, so no one is saying that, in itself, the shift to a single service was a bad move, although it is clear that it has had unfortunate consequences, which have been highlighted in the debate.
The other issue that comes out in that report is the significant training requirements that exist. If personnel numbers are being squeezed, it is difficult to find the necessary time for that.
Those are important issues that needed to be raised, and I congratulate Dave Stewart on doing so. It is the Government’s responsibility to ensure that firefighters are equipped, resourced and valued. I support Dave Stewart’s motion and again apologise for having to leave—although as the speaker at the meeting at 5.30 is the minister’s boss, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, I am sure that he will forgive me for going to it.
17:31