Criminal Justice Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Official Report 727KB pdf

Subordinate Legislation

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (Framework) Order 2022 (SSI 2022/119)

The next item is consideration of a Scottish statutory instrument: the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (Framework) Order 2022. I refer members to paper 5. Do members have any comments that they wish to make? If they do not, we will consider the SSI as coming into force.

My understanding is that the instrument allows the Government to introduce its framework document, setting out the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s priorities and objectives, as it is required to do under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, following centralisation. The framework document was published and then subject to consultation, and a number of responses were received. It is unclear from our documents whether the priorities and objectives on which the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service will be mandated to deliver are the same as those that were published prior to the consultation, or whether the framework document that sets out the objectives has been altered in any way as a result of responses to the consultation.

I am interested in that because some of the measures that had been suggested in relation to exploring new ways of working for the fire service were not entirely positively received by those who responded to the consultation. Has the Government reacted or responded to those responses by producing a document that is in line with the consultation feedback that it received? If it has not, the consultation was pointless. There is no Government minister here, given the nature of the instrument, but I would have asked that question of the Government had I been able to do so.

I am advised by the clerks that we do not know the specific answer to that question, but we can seek to get an answer from the Government and, perhaps, input from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

Given that we are being asked to agree to the instrument, we should ask the main protagonists who responded to the consultation whether they are happy with the framework, or whether they have any observations or reservations that they want us to consider before we agree to the instrument.

Okay. We can follow up on that. That completes our consideration of the SSI.