Fire Service (Halesowen and Rowley Regis)

Robert Neill Excerpts

Wednesday 9th November 2011 Westminster Hall

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

It is a pleasure to speak under your chairmanship, Mrs Riordan. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen and Rowley Regis (James Morris) on securing the debate. I am very glad that he has done so. It is on an issue in which he has taken a very considerable interest and on which he has been campaigning for some time. I am grateful to him for the care that he has taken in providing me and my officials with information about this matter, and for the concern that he has shown for his constituents in seeking a constructive meeting with me, which we had earlier.

I understand my hon. Friend’s concern about service provision in the west midlands. There is no doubt that fire stations provide a vital community safety and protection service. Of course, the pumps stationed in them are important, too. Running up the stairs to get back to this debate in time after the Division, I was reminded that they often carry defibrillators as well, because I thought I might need one at one point. Joking apart, these are life-saving, front-line services, and it is right that communities are sensitive about their placement.

Fire and rescue authorities have successfully improved the safety of their local communities in recent years. The number of fire deaths has halved in the past 20 years, and there has also been a fall in the number of fires, so there have been real achievements. That is the background. We recognise the very strong commitment that my hon. Friend has to his local service. However, we have to step back a little and see what the appropriate use is of the Secretary of State’s intervention powers and what the appropriate means are of dealing with the issues of controversy in this case. The Government, like their predecessor, are of the view that fire services are best delivered locally. The Government’s own commitment to localism reinforces that. It involves decisions about local deployment of services generally being taken at local level.

In the case of fire and rescue services, the democratically accountable fire and rescue authorities are the bodies charged with that responsibility. Those authorities are required by the national framework to produce and regularly update an integrated risk management plan, which identifies and assesses local need and sets out plans to mitigate effectively both existing and potential or future risks to communities, because of course those can change as a result of demographics and other matters. It is therefore a very localist process that has been built into the system with the IRMP. Each fire and rescue authority’s IRMP should enable the local authority to decide how best to provide the services. That includes prevention and protection, as well as the service provided by the stations and the placing of the pumps themselves. Strategic and operational matters, such as the manning and hours of operation of stations, and cross-border arrangements can and should be taken into account in considering the IRMP

It is against that background, as I understand it, that West Midlands fire authority has proposed to change the fire cover arrangements in Halesowen and Cradley Heath. I am advised that those proposals have been made in the light of both the assessed risk and the available resources. The matter is of local controversy, as my hon. Friend fairly says. I am aware that the proposals have generated a great deal of debate. In one respect, the debate is a healthy one—the community is obviously concerned about the proposals, and it is speaking up about them and engaging the fire authority. It is much assisted by the work of my hon. Friend, for which I commend him.

I understand that there are concerns about the adequacy and transparency of the consultation on the proposals. The question, however, is whether those concerns justify the use of the Secretary of State’s intervention powers under section 22 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004. My hon. Friend has recited the criticisms made about the consultation, which relate to the adequacy of the up-to-date assessment and whether using a consultation from some time ago is appropriate.

The intervention powers are designed to deal with the worst cases of systemic or corporate failure of fire authorities. The 2004 Act is framed in that way. Section 21 charges authorities to have regard to the national fire framework in carrying out their functions. The framework expects that there shall be proper consultation on service changes, but it does not specify in detail the means that such a consultation should take. However, we expect fire and rescue authorities to work in partnership with their local communities on such matters.

The powers of intervention under section 22 are designed to deal with failing authorities as opposed to failures of a particular decision process or a decision on a particular proposal. That is analogous to the situation in Haringey with the case of Baby P, where there was such a degree of failure that the system was not operating at all. On the evidence that we have, the situation raised by my hon. Friend does not seem to come into that category. Our policy approach on Government intervention in a failing authority is set out in that way.

We have set out our expectation that, where there are failures with an authority, first of all, the authority, working with its political and professional leadership, will put in place processes to seek improvement. That should normally be the means of dealing with a situation. Where that does not happen, the powers of the Secretary of State under section 22 would be invoked. They are used only for the most serious failings. Under those circumstances, the Secretary of State may give certain directions to an authority.

On what I have heard, that does not seem to be what we, as yet, have here. The authority has been advised by its professional advisers and the chief fire officer. The decision, which has not yet been taken, is one for the members of the fire authority, who are all elected councillors in their area. Like any local authority, a fire and rescue authority must act in Wednesbury reasonableness in its decision making, and it is therefore susceptible to judicial review. Generally, failures of process and of consultation relating to individual decision-making processes tend to be remedied by applications for judicial review rather than by the Secretary of State’s intervention.

Whether such a review is appropriate in this case is not for me to say, because it is not for the Secretary of State or his Ministers to comment on the merits, or otherwise, of a particular application; I am sure that my hon. Friend understands that. I think that that point is reinforced by the reference in his speech to the case of Royal Brompton hospital, in which a judicial review was seen to be the appropriate route. Section 22 of the 2004 Act does not envision that the merits, or otherwise, of an individual decision should normally be of such a magnitude as to trigger the intervention powers. Against that background, an intervention under section 22 does not seem to be appropriate.

It is worth saying a little about the funding of West Midlands fire authority, since my hon. Friend made reference to that. It is fair to say that, like all local authorities, West Midlands fire authority and other fire authorities have had to take their share in our efforts to reduce the deficit. However, taking into account its other sources of funding, such as council tax precepts, reserves and its formula grant, the overall reduction in the spending power of West Midlands fire authority is 5.6% in 2011-12 and 2.2% in 2012-13, which is the same as nine other single purpose fire authorities.

As West Midlands fire authority is one of the largest authorities in cash terms—perhaps the largest outside London—the reduction is a large one. However, it receives the largest protection of all such authorities from the floor damping system, which is part of the formula grant mechanism. It will receive £5.2 million in 2011-12 and £3.58 million in 2012-13, which is more than their needs indicators would allocate if the Secretary of State had not applied the damping. It is also worth noting that West Midlands fire authority receives £27 formula grant per head, compared with the shire average of £20. If anyone were to suggest that funding alone were a necessary trigger for the changes, I would suggest that the figures do not bear that out. That is not my hon. Friend’s contention, but that might be said in other quarters. It is also worth bearing it in mind that West Midlands fire authority has benefited from an 82% increase in capital grants on the previous year, which brings it to £2.9 million. How the authority disburses the resources is a matter for the authority, acting on the advice of its chief fire officer.

I am sorry that I am not able to give my hon. Friend all the detailed assurances that he is seeking. We have generally not sought precisely to identify a statutory form of consultation, for the reasons that I have set out—other remedies best apply. As yet, I do not see a situation in which the authority can be said to have acted in breach of its statutory duties under the 2004 Act, because action in accordance with the IRMP, on the face of it, tends to indicate compliance. However, a Minister is not in the best position to judge every detail of the case. As such matters are devolved to local authorities, it is not appropriate for the central Government to advise on the best course of action. They are right to set out the legislative framework, what the remedies are, and the facts, as far as are available, to all those concerned.

That is why I urge my hon. Friend to continue to raise the issues with West Midlands fire authority. I know that he has been in regular contact with the chief officer, the chair of the authority and the other elected members, who include elected members representing the metropolitan borough in his constituency. They are rightly to be held accountable to their electorate for their decisions.

Although the door is always open, I do not want to raise expectations at this stage that the—if I may put it this way—ultimate long stop of statutory intervention power is necessarily the appropriate route in this case. However, I hope that the members of the fire authority and their advisers will listen to my hon. Friend’s carefully and cogently made points. He makes a reasoned case, particularly on some of the issues that he raised about consultation, timing and how up to date the information is. However, as things stand, the matter is for the fire authority and its advisers.

Question put and agreed to.