The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Robert Neill)
I would like to inform the House about losses relating to the failed FiReControl project. In my recent statement to the House of 5 July 2011, Official Report, columns 82-83WS, I announced our next steps following the closure of the project in December 2010 and a consultation on the future of fire and rescue services in England that finished in April 2011.
The amounts incurred on the project have been reported over the life of the project in the Department’s annual resource accounts. Additionally, in 2010-11, as the project has now been cancelled, amounts incurred over the life of the project, including future liabilities, have been disclosed as losses in line with reporting requirements. The disclosure recognises £212 million spent on the project as a loss (with £10 million disclosed in 2009-10) plus an estimated future loss of £231 million in relation to the control centre buildings. A copy of this disclosure has been placed in the Library of the House.
This represents nearly half a billion pounds of taxpayers’ money wasted by the last Government on an over-ambitious, ill-conceived, centrally imposed solution that was disproportionate to the risks faced and did not engage the end user—the fire and rescue service. The National Audit Office report of 1 July 2011, HC 1272, on “The failure of the FiReControl project”, clearly sets out the many failings under the last Government. In December 2010, I took firm action, recognised by the National Audit Office, by closing the project before any more public money was wasted.
Our way forward is based on local solutions. It both reflects the views of the sector and encourages fire and rescue services to make best use of the legacy assets from FiReControl, including the control centre buildings, for the benefit of the taxpayer and local communities.