(Minister for Police and
Fire):I want to update the House on progress made since
the Prime Minister, as then Home Secretary, set out plans last May
to reform the fire and rescue service in England to become more
accountable, efficient and professional than ever before.
Services are already transforming and seizing opportunities for
collaboration, for example, delivering a single suite of national
operational guidance, creating a single, cross service research
and development function and developing a cross service new
commercial strategy. The service has also recently formed the
National Fire Chiefs' Council which will transform the
operational voice of fire and rescue services.
Our reform agenda is based around three distinct pillars:
efficiency and collaboration, accountability and transparency,
and workforce reform.
The Government has legislated through the Policing and Crime Act
2017 to transform local fire and rescue governance, enabling
police and crime commissioners to become the fire and rescue
authority where a strong local case is made. The Act also creates
a statutory duty to collaborate. Better joint working can
strengthen our emergency services, deliver significant savings to
the taxpayer and – most importantly – enable them to better
protect the public. This new duty requires emergency services to
keep collaboration opportunities under review and to take on
collaboration opportunities where it would be in the interests of
efficiency and effectiveness to do so. It will come into force in
April.
While fire and rescue authorities have achieved significant
savings to date, I believe they can go further. Last year I
undertook a basket of goods exercise to ascertain the prices each
fire and rescue authority pays for a basket of twenty-five common
items. The exercise illustrated that procurement practices need
to be improved and so the Home Office has supported the sector
develop a new commercial approach to aggregate and standardise
procurement. This exercise will be repeated in the Autumn to
ensure progress is being made and a separate exercise will be
undertaken this spring on different, high spend items.
I will create an independent inspectorate and am considering
options. I want this inspectorate to be rigorous in application
and forensic in process, to deliver rounded and comprehensive
inspections to assess the operational effectiveness and
efficiency of each service. This independent scrutiny will ensure
that fire authorities are held to the highest possible standards.
I will update the House in due course as this body is formed.
Transparency of fire and rescue services increased last year by
the publication of new procurement and workforce diversity data
and will be strengthened further by the creation of a new website
that will hold a range of information, in one place, about
services. This will include information such as chief officer
pay, expenditure and workforce composition and further
information is planned.
I will create a professional standards body to further
professionalise the service. The Home Office is working with the
sector to develop options for this body which I hope will form
later this year. I propose this body to set standards on a range
of issues such as leadership, workforce development, equality and
diversity and codifying effective practice.
Finally, I published the independent review into firefighter
terms and conditions by Adrian Thomas in November. The review's
recommendations, if implemented, will secure the future of the
service for years to come by creating a diverse working
environment free from bullying and harassment, with strong
leadership and more flexible working conditions. I am encouraged
that the Local Government Association, in partnership with the
sector, recognise the need to take swift action in response to
this report and deliver vital reforms to the workforce. I expect
the recommendations of the review to be followed, particularly in
relation to reforming the National Joint Council and the Grey
Book, and I will be closely monitoring progress.
I also expect services to step up and find solutions to the
current lack of diversity so clearly highlighted in the workforce
statistics we published last year, with just 4% of firefighters
from an ethnic minority background and just 5% female.
Delivering this ambitious reform agenda does not simply rest with
me, or with the Government. Ultimately, the sector itself must
shape and deliver these changes. It is for their benefit and the
benefit of the communities they serve, and I look forward to
seeing the results.
