Meeting of the Parliament 20 January 2016
That point is not in dispute; the point is to get the VAT right. My colleague Rhoda Grant wrote to the Treasury, and a Treasury official responded:
“In 2011 the Scottish Government were explicitly advised of this potential consequence of changing from regional police forces to a single authority as part of the proposed revised funding model for Police Scotland. At the time they took the decision to make these reforms they would have known they would no longer be eligible for VAT refunds as a result.”
That decision was expensive: it costs £10 million a year.
It is clear that the job of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is to keep our communities safe and to save lives, and that it needs adequate resources to do that. We have a service of dedicated, skilled, front-line staff, both firefighters and control room staff. I call on the Scottish Government to take immediate steps to protect the future of front-line firefighters and the service’s support staff. The Government should not just take my word on the matter: a YouGov survey showed that 82 per cent of respondents thought the fire and rescue service was doing a fantastic job. I ask members to please support the heroes in our fire services and ask the Government to look again at the current model.