Public Petitions Committee, 06 Nov 2007

Meeting date: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Official Report 257KB pdf

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Current Petitions

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Fire Control Rooms (PE765 and PE795)

As I said earlier, we will bring forward consideration of PE765 and PE795, before taking a brief comfort break. The petitions are linked and have been in the petitions system for a considerable time. Both relate to concerns about the retention of fire control rooms in Scotland.

PE765, from Jim Malone, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Executive to ensure the retention of the current eight fire control rooms in Scotland. PE795, from Drew McFarlane Slack, on behalf of Highlands and Islands fire brigade, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Executive to ensure the retention of the current eight fire control rooms in Scotland. Members have had a chance to look at the written submissions that have been made relating to the petitions; those submissions are listed in the committee papers. The petitions have been in the system for a long time. Under the efficient government strategy, an effort is being made to make best use of public resources and to look at how we deliver public services. I know that in the chamber and in the former Government different views were expressed on how the issue should be tackled. How do members want to deal with the petitions, now that they are back before us?

This is timely. As the new boy on the committee, I am not quite sure how I should proceed on the issue. However, recently I had detailed conversations with representatives of the Fire Brigades Union. As a result of those conversations, I had fairly detailed discussions with Fergus Ewing, the Minister for Community Safety, who assured me that no decision has been made. I understand that he will put a paper to the Cabinet within weeks, although obviously he has no idea what decision the Cabinet will make. I can give the committee that much information on the record. That being the position, it would be best for us simply to write to the Government to ask it how it proposes to proceed.

I have concerns about reducing the number of control rooms. The area that I cover is hugely diverse and is served by a mixture of retained and full-time fire crews. That local knowledge helps to get the best service out as quickly as possible. It would be wise for us to get in touch with the minister to find out officially how he intends to pursue the matter, how decisions will be made and what input members can have into those decisions.

It might be appropriate to contact the heads of the fire service in each region to find out their views. There might be a Government view, but chief officers will also have a view about how they want to take forward the service. It would be useful to find out what discussions chief fire officers have had. Just to stir the pot slightly more, there is the possibility of combining a range of emergency services' operations by centralising control rooms. We have to try to get under the skin of that, to find out whether the developments that have been discussed will go much further than just retaining eight control rooms. We might be looking at a rejigging of all the emergency service control rooms in Scotland. We should contact chief fire officers to start with. We will get more information from the Government in the next couple of weeks.

We will ask about the timescale for the existing review and when Parliament will be able to scrutinise recommendations that come out of a Cabinet discussion or discussion within the relevant portfolio. John Wilson suggested that we also seek the views of local authority fire boards. Do we agree to take that approach?

If we are going down the route of considering concerns about merging emergency services, would it be wise to get in touch with the Scottish Ambulance Service and the police throughout Scotland to find out their feelings? I know that that is digressing a bit from the petition.

That is not a bad suggestion. The previous Government had the efficient government agenda. I presume that, given the signals that we have had from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, the present Government will need to adopt a similar approach. I wonder about the nature of the Government's approach to efficient government. It might be worth while asking the relevant minister how the organisation of control rooms fits in with the efficient government agenda.

Some fire authorities or other agencies might say that they think that they can share resources, but the petitioners have a different perspective on that. We need to find out what the Government's direction of travel is. It is clear that the Cabinet will have to make a tough decision at some time. We would like to know when it will make that decision and on what criteria the decision will be based. We could also raise the matter with fire authorities. We could make a general inquiry to the other emergency services; I am sure that they must be having discussions behind the scenes on a regional basis to share expertise and knowledge. Are we happy with that course of action?

Members indicated agreement.

I am conscious that the petitioners will not have had a quiet night last night. The purpose of the discussion is to move the petition to the next stage. We need to seek further comment from the likes of the Government ministers. I know that the Fire Brigades Union, the trade union responsible, has raised the matter with me, as convener of the committee, and other members with which it has contact. The FBU is keen to get a resolution to the issue. The petitions are at least two years old, so we need to expedite matters. I hope that we will be able to do that through our discussions with the relevant minister.

I say for the benefit of people who have just arrived that after we take a five-minute comfort break we will return to the original order of agenda items.

Meeting suspended.

On resuming—