Chamber and committees

The bill that became the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 was supported by Labour at the time. The reduction in the number of firefighters is primarily a result of the establishment of the single national service, which reduced the duplication in the eight regional services. I know what the member is saying about rural areas, which she mentioned to me yesterday, but, under the service delivery review, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service needs to keep evaluating its services as time progresses.

The single service has allowed for the delivery of additional specialist resources that serve the whole of Scotland, such as the water rescue capability, which is being rolled out to 20 fire stations.

In 2013, there were 357 fire stations in Scotland; today, there are 356—only one fewer. In that time, the risks that our country faces have changed, and it is right that we make sure that we are ready to respond to any new challenges. Over the past 10 years, there has been a 20 per cent reduction in the number of house fires. The overall number of incidents that are attended by the SFRS continues to fall.

Although the number of house fires has reduced, there have been other incidents, and new risks have emerged.

I conclude by saying something about response times—that is really important because, if anything about that is misconstrued, it can cause public fear. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has been clear that it advises against using response times as a meaningful metric for performance and that the focus should be on outcomes. There are complex and dynamic factors that impact on those times.

Will Sharon Dowey take an intervention?

I note the concerns that the member has raised, which all ministers in the Government share. We would like to extend our sympathies to all those who were affected by the wildfires that occurred in late June and early July. I am grateful to the SFRS, gamekeepers, land managers, volunteers, partners, landowners, extended local communities, the wider land management sector and, indeed, everyone who played a major role in getting this spring and summer’s wildfires under control.

As I said in my opening answer, in October we will hold a summit at which we will work with everybody to find the best way of moving forward.

Because of the increase in wildfires this year and the concerns that have been raised, the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity and I are holding the summit in October so that we can explore how rural areas can be better prepared for wildfires. That is also why it is important that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is undertaking a service delivery review, the full public consultation for which just closed a couple of weeks ago. That is considering how we can prepare for a safer Scotland as we move into the future.

We will continue to support the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to deliver the high standard of services that are required to keep Scotland safe. That includes the implementation of its wildfire strategy and an overall budget increase of £18.8 million for this year.

The emergencies that the SFRS has responded to have changed significantly over the years. For example, dwelling fires have reduced by more than 20 per cent since 2013. Although the number of house fires has reduced, other incidents, such as flooding and wildfires, which is what we are talking about, have increased. That is why it is right that the fire service is carefully considering how to adapt to the changing risks to remain effective and efficient, with firefighters in the right place at the right time.

Climate change is contributing to warmer and drier conditions, which increase the likelihood and the intensity of wildfires. Shifts in weather patterns, such as those that led to last week’s wildfire danger warning and this week’s yellow warning for rain, reinforce the climate challenges that we currently face.

Although there have been no significant wildfires during the latest wildfire warning period, we have seen significant fires this year. I commend the SFRS and its partners in the rural and land management sectors, which ably assisted in dealing with those fires.

In October, the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity and I will host a wildfire summit to discuss with our partners how we can improve our wildfire preparedness, prevention and response in the future. We continue to work with the SFRS to support full implementation of its wildfire strategy, which will continued to be rolled out this year, with new equipment, vehicles and personal protection equipment, to be backed by £1.6 million of funding over three years.

Muirburn is just one way of addressing the increasing wildfire risks in Scotland and should not be seen as a silver bullet. I appreciate that not everybody agrees with the science on muirburn on peatlands, but that was thoroughly consulted on and debated during the lead-up to and passage of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024.

The muirburn licensing scheme that the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity is introducing has not been brought into effect yet. We are working with practitioners to ensure that it will be a workable scheme, especially in relation to wildfire prevention.

With regard to the equipment for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, I have regular meetings with the SFRS and it has not brought that up as an issue. If the member has any specific concerns, I am happy for him to write to me and I will look into them for him.

The right to free speech and protest is at the heart of a healthy democracy and the Scottish Government is committed to upholding that right, but it understands the distress that the protests are causing to residents across asylum accommodation. Creating buffer zones similar to those that have been introduced in relation to abortion clinics would require new legislation. We have no current plans to do that, but we will continue to monitor the situation.

Scottish ministers have regular discussions with Police Scotland on a range of issues including the policing of protests. Operational policing is a matter for Police Scotland, and it has confirmed that it has the appropriate resources to ensure the safety of those who are in attendance and to mitigate disruption to the wider community. Police Scotland is a rights-based organisation and it is committed to facilitating peaceful protests and counter-demonstrations to allow those who are seeking to protest to exercise their human rights. However, let me be clear: there is no place for criminality or hate crime on our streets, and I fully support Police Scotland taking the appropriate and proportionate action in response to such behaviour.