§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a full statement on the present state of the fire services, with specific reference to establishments, recruitment, equipment and morale.
§ Mr. WhitelawNo. I have no reason to believe that fire authorities are failing to discharge their responsibilities under the fire services Acts.
§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will appoint a specialist committee to re-examine the reports on the fire service by Margaret Thomas, and Sir Ronald Holroyd, and of the Cunningham Royal Commission and to update and apply their findings to the fire service where still relevant.
§ Mr. WhitelawNo. These inquiries which were completed in 1969, 1970 and 1971 respectively were considered at the appropriate time and I do not think any useful purpose would be served by appointing a committee to re-examine the reports.
§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will seek to take direct responsibility for the fire service.
§ Mr. WhitelawNo.
§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will seek to take the necessary power to enable his Department to appoint chief, deputy and assistant chief officers for the fire services, with the local authorities having the power of veto.
§ Mr. WhitelawNo.
§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will seek to take powers to impose such technical innovations on fire authorities as are deemed necessary by his departmental experts.
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§ Mr. WhitelawNo. Technical matters relating to the functions of fire authorities are considered in the Central Fire Brigades Advisory Council and its specialist committees following which recommendations are made to fire authorities by the Home Office. I have no reason to believe that these arrangements are unsatisfactory.
§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will seek to take appropriate action to ensure the reference of all technical matters relating to the fire services to his Department for resolution by experts.
§ Mr. WhitelawNo. I have no reason to believe that the present arrangements, under which technical matters relating to fire services are referred to the Central Fire Brigades Advisory Council and its specialist committees, are unsatisfactory.
§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will take powers to settle matters of pay, hours and duty systems for the fire services.
§ Mr. WhitelawNo. Matters relating to fire service pay and conditions of service are the responsibility of individual fire authorities, acting on the recommendations of the appropriate national joint council, on which the fire authorities and the relevant fire service staff organisations are represented.
§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will seek a meeting with the appropriate local fire authority representative bodies and, if necessary, individual fire authorities, with a view to discussing their obligations to provide adequate and uniform standards of fire fighting and prevention cover.
§ Mr. WhitelawNo. I have no reason to believe that fire authorities are failing to discharge their statutory responsibilities in these matters.
§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he plans to bring forward legislation to amend the fire service Acts.
§ Mr. WhitelawAmong the bodies to be abolished following the review of non-16W departmental public bodies is the Fire Service College Board. It will not be possible to implement this decision until there is an opportunity to amend section 23 of the Fire Services Act 1947. I have no other plans to bring forward legislation to amend the fire services Acts.