Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-29147

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 November 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the continuation of central government funding for additional police officers beyond the current parliamentary session.

Question reference: S3W-28734

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 November 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, following the flooding in the north east on 1 November 2009, what its position is on the concerns expressed by the Fire Brigades Union in a press release on 2 November 2009 that fire service personnel attended incidents and effected rescues while ill-prepared in terms of training and personal protective equipment; whether it intends to take action, and, if so, what action.

All fire and rescue services have a statutory duty to respond to major flooding incidents and the Scottish Government has made over £1.3 million of funding available to support the purchase of related equipment and training. The Scottish Government would therefore be concerned if any firefighter was asked to attend an incident without adequate provision of equipment or training.

While the provision of training and resourcing is primarily the responsibility of each fire and rescue service, additional support and guidance is also provided by the Scottish Fire Services College and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Advisory Unit.

In this instance, we encourage the Fire Brigades Union to present their evidence directly to the relevant fire and rescue service, with a view to reaching resolution at a local level.

Question reference: S3W-28735

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 November 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, following the flooding in the north east on 1 November 2009, whether it shares the concerns expressed by the Fire Brigades Union in a press release on 2 November 2009 that it is both inappropriate and dangerous that firefighters working waist deep in water were wearing clothing designed to protect them from flame and heat.

All fire and rescue services have a statutory duty to respond to major flooding incidents and the Scottish Government has made over £1.3 million of funding available to support the purchase of related equipment and training. The Scottish Government would therefore be concerned if any firefighter was asked to attend an incident without adequate provision of equipment or training.

While the provision of training and resourcing is primarily the responsibility of each fire and rescue service, additional support and guidance is also provided by the Scottish Fire Services College and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Advisory Unit.

In this instance, we encourage the Fire Brigades Union to present their evidence directly to the relevant fire and rescue service, with a view to reaching resolution at a local level.

Question reference: S3W-28902

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time firefighters there were in each of the last 10 years, broken down by fire and rescue service.

The Scottish Government no longer collects records of the numbers of personnel employed by each of the fire and rescue services. The last recorded data was given in Appendix 2; Establishment and Strength of Fire and Rescue Services, of the Annual Report by Her Majesty''s Chief Inspector of Fire Services for Scotland published in October 2008, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament''s Information Centre (Bib. number 46822). The statistics for the year ending 31 March 2007 can be found in the annual report for 2006-2007, also available in the Scottish Parliament''s Information Centre (Bib. number 44156).

For details on the numbers of employees for the years 1990-2006, I refer the member to the question S3W-02674 answered on 16 August 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The more recent figures should be available directly from the eight fire and rescue services.

Question reference: S3W-28903

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) part-time retained and (b) part-time volunteer firefighters there were in each of the last 10 years, broken down by fire and rescue service.

Question reference: S3W-28737

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 November 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, following the flooding in the north east on 1 November 2009, whether it considers that fire and rescue services are acting in accordance with their own risk assessments and standard operating procedures in committing personnel to these situations.

The responsibility for ensuring that staff in a fire and rescue service follow instructions, including the service''s standard operating instructions for dealing with incidents, lies with that service.

The Operational Assessment of Service Delivery review carried out by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Advisory Unit in 2008 identified that each service in Scotland had its own regime for reviewing incidents to learn lessons including debriefs.

We would therefore expect that any failure to comply with standard operating procedures would be picked up by the service concerned during their debrief process and lessons learned implemented.

Question reference: S3W-28736

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 November 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, following the flooding in the north east on 1 November 2009, whether it shares the concerns expressed by the Fire Brigades Union in a press release on 2 November 2009 that firefighters were working waist deep in water without the specialist training required to undertake that task safely.

All fire and rescue services have a statutory duty to respond to major flooding incidents and the Scottish Government has made over £1.3 million of funding available to support the purchase of related equipment and training. The Scottish Government would therefore be concerned if any firefighter was asked to perform a role without the right training.

While the provision of training and resourcing is primarily the responsibility of each fire and rescue service, additional support and guidance is also provided by the Scottish Fire Services College and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Advisory Unit.

In this instance, we encourage the Fire Brigades Union to present their evidence directly to the relevant fire and rescue service, with a view to reaching resolution at a local level.

Question reference: S3W-28738

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 November 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of compliance with section 5 of The Fire (Additional Function) (Scotland) Order 2005; whether it intends to take action, and, if so, what action.

Scotland''s fire and rescue services have a statutory duty to respond to major flooding incidents. As such, the legal responsibility for ensuring that these duties are carried out safely and effectively rests with the relevant fire and rescue authorities.

Additionally, the Scottish Fire Services College and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Advisory Unit provide the fire and rescue services with practical training and guidance on a range of operational issues for flood rescue.

Question reference: S3W-28330

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 16 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-19446 by Kenny MacAskill on 15 January 2009, what enhancements it is making to the crime level data for the 2009 index and when it expects this data to be published.

The Scottish Government published the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2009 General Report on 29 October 2009, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 49652). The report can also be accessed via the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/10/28104046/0.

The SIMD crime domain measures the rate of recorded SIMD crime at small area level using 2007-08 recorded crime data and is based on five indicators of broad crime types: crimes of violence; domestic house breaking; vandalism; drug offences, and minor assault.

No changes have been made to the crime domain indicators since SIMD 2006. As a result, the indicators and the overall domains between SIMD 2006 and SIMD 2009 are directly comparable.

The SIMD is presented at data zone level, enabling small pockets of deprivation to be identified. The data zones, which have a median population size of 767 in SIMD 2009, are ranked from most deprived (1) to least deprived (6,505) on the overall SIMD and on each of the individual domains. The result is a comprehensive picture of relative area deprivation across Scotland.

A new SIMD 2009 interactive mapping tool has been designed. The Full Interactive Mapping option allows the user to zoom in and out of any area of Scotland selecting SIMD and contextual data for any datazone they wish. It also allows the user to compare datazones. Both road and aerial mapping are available

The Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics can be used to carry out more detailed analysis of the SIMD through comparison of the results with a range of socio-economic indicators. http://www.sns.gov.uk/.

Question reference: S3W-28329

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 16 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-19446 by Kenny MacAskill on 15 January 2009, what further consideration it has given to plans to make available to communities in Scotland neighbourhood crime maps, as introduced in England and Wales by the Home Office on 6 January 2009.

We have no immediate plans to replicate the Home Office scheme in Scotland, but will continue to monitor the impact of this innovative approach to public engagement with interest.

The Scottish Government Justice and Communities Analytical Services Division worked with Scottish forces and Office of the Chief Statistician on the development of the crime domain in the 2009 Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2009 General Report was published by the Scottish Government on 29 October 2009, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 49652). The report can also be accessed via the following link http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/10/28104046/0.

The SIMD crime domain measures the rate of recorded SIMD crime at small area level using 2007-08 recorded crime data and is based on five indicators of broad crime types: crimes of violence; domestic house breaking; vandalism; drug offences, and minor assault.

The SIMD is presented at data zone level, enabling small pockets of deprivation to be identified. The data zones, which have a median population size of 767 in SIMD 2009, are ranked from most deprived (1) to least deprived (6,505) on the overall SIMD and on each of the individual domains. The result is a comprehensive picture of relative area deprivation across Scotland.

The Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics website can be used to carry out more detailed analysis of the SIMD through comparison of the results with a range of socio-economic indicators:

www.sns.gov.uk.

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