Retained Firefighters

Robert Neill Excerpts

Wednesday 14th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Robert Neill)]

It is a pleasure to respond to this debate. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North Warwickshire (Dan Byles) on securing it, on the elegant way in which he put his case and on his generosity in allowing several other hon. Members to participate. His recital of the history of the fire service reminded me of my own rather lengthy association with the organisation, although I do not go back quite as far as some of the reforms that my hon. Friend mentioned—despite rumours to the contrary.

I am delighted to agree with my hon. Friend about the importance of the fire service. I fully appreciate just how vital the retained duty system is to the effectiveness of emergency cover in many parts of the country, particularly in protecting our small towns and rural communities and providing a crucial element of the national resilience arrangements. Retained duty system firefighters, as my hon. Friends have said, make up more than 30% of the fire and rescue service’s operational personnel and provide crews to something like 54% of all fire stations in England.

As I said in my speech to the UK fire and rescue conference in Harrogate at the end of last month, the vital and significant contribution of the retained duty system provides an excellent example of how localism and the big society are already embedded within parts of the fire service, and I welcome that recognition from my hon. Friends.

I can confirm that the Government greatly value the contribution of firefighters employed on the retained duty system. They are the backbone of many services, and in some cases they form more than 70% of the operational work force. I had the pleasure of making that point directly to the national officers of the Retained Firefighters Union when I met them as an early priority after my appointment.

Throughout the country, retained firefighters undertake a range of roles, responding to emergencies of all kinds, such as heathland fires, floods, ship fires and chemical spills. Many are also involved in the delivery of community fire safety advice, and others take part in the co-responding programme as first responders to medical emergencies, such as heart attacks. They bring great flexibility and value for money to our system. As active members of their community, retained duty crews provide an excellent demonstration of the effectiveness of the localist approach to service delivery, and I agree that they are dedicated and highly motivated men and women who do an excellent job for their communities.

In some parts of the country, the system has been affected by long-standing recruitment and retention difficulties, but I hope that a number of measures that are now available will help to support the fire and rescue service in overcoming those challenges. We have to recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to what can be quite complex local issues, particularly given the changes to the organisation of rural life, the social change in areas served by the retained duty system and the competing pressures on busy people’s time. However, that has led to the development of initiatives such as an employers’ information toolkit for fire and rescue services to use in establishing and building links with businesses in their community, and an employers’ recognition scheme designed to be run locally by fire and rescue services to acknowledge the contribution by employers in their area who release staff for retained duties.

We are undertaking an extensive survey of the retained duty system, looking at how the nature of the retained role may have changed in recent years; how demographic changes may be impacting on that, as with the economic situation; how the service is addressing recruitment and retention, and managing those pressures; and how the RDS work force are trained, developed and utilised. That survey will deliver vital evidence that will inform discussions by fire and rescue authorities on issues affecting this valued sector of the work force; so, too, will the proposed strategic review of the fire service that I announced at the Harrogate conference. I hope that we will use the opportunity of the survey and the review to encourage fire and rescue authorities to make more imaginative use of the resource of retained duty fire fighter.

It is necessary to say a few words about the economic background with which the service has to deal. The Budget of 22 June set out the Government’s five-year plan to rebuild the British economy based on our values of responsibility, freedom and fairness. It shows how we will carry out Britain’s unavoidable deficit reduction plan in a way that strengthens and unites the country. In these challenging times, the fire and rescue service, alongside other public services providers, will have an important role to play in helping to deliver those spending reductions. We will look to the sector to be innovative in making savings and in improving efficiencies, while at the same time recognising that its core business is a front-line role, which must of course be given appropriate priority. It is therefore right that many of the proposals contained in integrated risk management plans—across the country, not only in Warwickshire—are aimed at increasing efficiency because, by doing so, fire and rescue authorities can maximise the amount of risk-reducing activity that they can deliver from the resources available to them.

That is the key point. The aim should still be to ensure excellent service delivery. Efficiency is about working more effectively, using less public money to deliver as good, or better, public services. That means that despite reductions in spending, there should not be a visible reduction in service, nor a reduction in performance. There will be difficult decisions to make, but the fire and rescue service has a track record of delivery, and I am sure that it will step up to the mark to deal with this.

My hon. Friend the Member for North Warwickshire, and my other hon. Friends, referred to the position in Warwickshire, and I understand why they did so. I note in passing that present in his place, and keeping me company on the Treasury Bench, is my hon. Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Jeremy Wright), whose position does not permit him to take part in the debate but who takes an active interest in this matter as a Warwickshire Member of Parliament.

I have spoken at length about the overall position of the retained duty system. Of course, my hon. Friends have referred to the proposals in Warwickshire and the possible closure of some fire stations that forms part of those proposals. As they will recall, the implications of the changes set out in Warwickshire fire and rescue authority’s improvement plan were debated in Westminster Hall on 30 June. I am sure that in making its decision, Warwickshire county council will take into account all the views expressed during the consultation exercise, and I have no doubt that my hon. Friends who have spoken powerfully tonight will ensure that the authority takes their views into account. I am sure that as a responsible fire authority it will do so.

However, as I explained in the earlier debate, it would be inappropriate for Ministers to comment on the specific proposals that have been put forward and consulted on by Warwickshire fire and rescue authority. The principle of local determination of local solutions for local circumstances means that it would not be appropriate for me to seek to influence the decisions that the authority will be faced with on 20 July in light of the representations to it. The whole point of the locally determined risk approach is that it is for local authorities to take such decisions, and I am confident that they will do so responsibly. I am sure my hon. Friends will understand why it is not appropriate for me to say more on the specifics, but they have ventilated their case with vigour.

I close by saying that earlier today I was at Winchester cathedral, representing Her Majesty’s Government at a memorial service for two brave firefighters who died on duty in Southampton. They were full-time firefighters, but the risks run by firefighters draw no distinction between those who are full time and those who are retained, and there have been tragic deaths among retained firefighters in recent times as well. All of them—every one—are brave and courageous men and women doing their best for this country, and they deserve our support.