§ Mr. PageTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the components that make up the modernisation programme for the Fire Service; and what anticipated pay uplift percentages would be awarded to each achieved component of the modernisation programme. [84488]
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§ Mr. RaynsfordThe Government have established the Independent Review of the Fire Service, under Sir George Bain, to examine modernisation and pay in the Fire Service. In its Position Paper, issued on 11 November 2002, the Independent Review recommended that above-inflation pay increases should only be paid if accompanied by modernisation. Modernisation includes
full-time firefighters working in the same crew as retained (part-time) firefighters;ending the ban on overtime;allowing management to change, where necessary, the rigid shift system of two days on, two nights on, then four days off in order to provide a better service;giving firefighters some medical training as paramedics, and allowing them to carry resuscitation equipment such as defibrillators;the Fire Service sharing control rooms between brigades and with other emergency services, to provide a more efficient response; andtaking action to improve the management of sickness in the Fire Service to reduce the high numbers who retire early through sickness and ill-healthThe full Position Paper is available at: www.irfs.org.uk/docs/positionpaper/index.htm and a copy has been placed in the House Libraries
It is for the local government employers and the FBU to negotiate the level of pay in the Fire Service. The Government have made it clear that anything over and above the four per cent, offered to firefighters must be paid for by modernisation.