HC Deb 05 May 2000 vol 349 c223W
Mrs. Lawrence

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to publish the report of the inquiry into the machinery for determining firefighters' conditions of service. [121340]

Mr. Straw

I announced in the reply I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Colne Valley (Kali Mountford), on 12 April 2000,Official Report, column 226W, that I had received professor Burchill's recommendations and was consulting upon them. 1 very much welcomes his proposals for improving the working of the National Joint Council for Local Authorities' Fire Brigades and the positive reaction there has been to them. I have now arranged for the report of the inquiry to be published today as a Command Paper and for copies to be placed in the Library. I am asking for further comments from interested parties on the detail of the report and its recommendations to reach me by the end of this month.