Meeting of the Parliament 20 January 2016
I do not enjoy the notion of blaming. The point is who is responsible, and the person who is responsible—or, rather, the entity that is responsible—is very firmly the Scottish Government.
The Scottish Government has brought about a 20 per cent cut in the budget for the Scottish fire service, when the global budget would suggest that a cut of nearer 10 per cent would have been applied. That is before anybody takes account of the priority that should be attached to the fire service and what it does for us.
The fire service has also taken on additional work. It has responsibility for responding to cardiac arrests; it has a greater involvement in the response to the terrorist threat; it is involved in training in relation to climate change; it engages in the junior firefighter schemes that are so important in tackling youth reoffending; and it is involved in a great deal of fire inspections and enforcement.
Rather than looking to blame someone—and we do not blame the current minister—we need some realism from the entire Scottish establishment. If we are to have emergency services that act on our behalf to save life, protect property and provide a safer environment, we ask, as David Stewart eloquently does in his motion, that the Government should review the current situation and realise the impact that it is having on front-line services.
Instead of adhering to political one-liners, the Government should adopt a realistic approach in acknowledging that we have gone too far, and begin to support the fire service, and the men and women who work in that service, to ensure that they achieve what they want to do on our behalf—deliver a world-class service for Scotland and its communities.
17:21