§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the financial difficulties facing the London fire service and on his response to it. [13224]
§ Mr. George HowarthI have received representations from the London fire and civil defence authority about expected future funding difficulties. The revenue provision for the authority in 1998–99 will be announced in the coming weeks as part of the provisional local government settlement for England. I understand that the authority is making a number of proposals for reductions in firefighting resources. Before these could be implemented, they would require the approval of my right hon. Friend under the provisions of section 19 of the Fire Services Act 1947.
§ Mr. HoramTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will set out the calculations by which a fire service in a C risk category area must meet its attendance time requirement of eight to 10 minutes under Home Office standards; [13485]
(2) if, when a fire service in a C risk category area is moved from round-the-clock cover to a retained basis, it is still expected to meet its attendance time target of eight to 10 minutes; and what the revised time calculations are; [13481]
(3) what action is taken if a fire service in a C risk category area does not meet its eight to 10 minute attendance time standard. [13487]
843W
§ Mr. George HowarthStatutory responsibility for the provision of a fire service to meet efficiently all normal requirements rests locally with the fire authority. In performance of their duties, fire authorities have regard to the national standards of fire cover, which have been endorsed by the Central Fire Brigades Advisory Council and are recommended by the Home Secretary.
The national standards set out for fires in each category of fire risk the recommended minimum number of firefighting appliances which should attend within predetermined times. The recommended response is the same whatever time of day an incident takes place. In conducting reviews of fire risk, brigades carry out timed runs, making assumptions about the time it will take for a fire appliance to reach a given point in accordance with local traffic conditions. Such evidence will also be supported by an examination of actual attendance times.
The national standards are not statutory and they do allow for the possibility of brigades not meeting the recommended response time for every fire call, for example in circumstances where a number of simultaneous incidents occur. For each response to a fire call, brigades record the time from the despatch of the applicant to arrival at the incident and it is the practice to investigate the reasons if in the case the national recommended response times have not been met.
Each brigade is inspected annually by Her Majesty's inspectorate of fire services to monitor, among other things, whether the national recommended standards are in general being maintained.
The overall performance of brigades in meeting the recommended response times is also monitored by the Audit Commission, which publishes the results of its findings. The Audit Commission said earlier this year that the fire service was one of the most consistently high performing services in local government.
A fire authority may not change the staffing of a fire station from whole-time to day-crewed or retained without the approval of the Home Secretary under section 19(4) of the Fire Services Act 1947. He will approve only if he is satisfied that the fire authority has consulted about its proposals and, on the advice of Her Majesty's inspectorate, that the national standards will continue to be maintained.
§ Mr. HoramTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will set out the pension arrangements for firemen in the London area. [13486]
§ Mr. George HowarthRegular firefighters in London, as elsewhere in England and Wales, are members of the firemen's pension scheme, the current provisions of which are set out in the Firemen's Pension Scheme Order 1992, as amended.
§ Mr. HoramTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimates he had made of the forward cost of pensions for firemen retiring in the London area; and what assessment he has made of the impact of that cost on the provision of fire services. [13480]
§ Mr. George HowarthIn reaching its decisions on the provisional local government settlement for 1998–99, the Government will have regard to the pressures on the fire844W service, as on other local authority services. These pressures include the increasing pension commitments of fire authorities.
The Government take into account both estimates of future pensions expenditure provided by the Local Government Association and detailed projections of net pensions expenditure provided by the Government Actuary's Department. For London, they also have estimates of future pensions expenditure provided by the London fire and civil defence authority.