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Chamber

Meeting of the Parliament 24 March 2026 [Draft]

24 Mar 2026 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Topical Question Time
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (Budget)
Dowey, Sharon Con South Scotland Watch on SPTV

I note the minister’s response, but it will be of little reassurance to firefighters on the ground who are being asked to do more with less. Firefighters have been clear that there are fewer firefighters, fewer appliances and longer response times, and none of those things logically results in safer communities. In response to an article that the minister wrote in her local press, the FBU said:

“The Minister’s call for improved fire safety at a time when she is overseeing a service being systematically stripped of jobs and fire fighting capacity shows she is in complete denial about what is going on in the service she is responsible for.”

Is the minister in complete denial about the effects of her Scottish National Party Government’s cuts to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service?

In the same item of business

2. Sharon Dowey (South Scotland) (Con) Con
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported comments by the Fire Brigades Union that years of real-terms budget reductions have left the ...
The Minister for Victims and Community Safety (Siobhian Brown) SNP
I echo the First Minister’s recognition of the service’s response to the Union corner fire. We recognise the vital role that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Ser...
Sharon Dowey Con
The devastating fire on Union Street in Glasgow once again demonstrated the extraordinary professionalism and bravery of Scotland’s firefighters. However, we...
Siobhian Brown SNP
It is right that the service review is about the SFRS identifying the optimal service to keep communities across Scotland safe in the future by addressing ch...
Sharon Dowey Con
I note the minister’s response, but it will be of little reassurance to firefighters on the ground who are being asked to do more with less. Firefighters hav...
Siobhian Brown SNP
Absolutely not. I highlight to the member that the reduction in firefighter numbers since 2013 is not because of cuts. Forming a single national service allo...
Pauline McNeill (Glasgow) (Lab) Lab
The centralisation of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was not just about reducing duplication; it was about much more than that. In 2023, 166 firefighte...
Siobhian Brown SNP
As I said to the other member, the chief officer has said that the service will not make any changes to operations that put the public at any unacceptable le...
Maggie Chapman (North East Scotland) (Green) Green
Across Scotland, people will share the FBU’s concern for the service, given the fire in Glasgow. They will have noted the skilled and dedicated work of the f...
Siobhian Brown SNP
We do not have a definite date for the service delivery review but, as I said to Pauline McNeill, the SFRS is taking its time to go through the consultation ...
Foysol Choudhury (Lothian) (Ind) Ind
What analysis has been conducted of the potential change in response times for the north-east of the city of Edinburgh should the proposed closure of Marionv...
Siobhian Brown SNP
That is an operational decision, and the analysis will come from the Scottish Fire and Rescue through its service delivery review. The SFRS continues to resp...