Fire Service College Task Group (Hansard, 14 July 2003)

§ The Minister of State, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Lord Rooker)

In May 2002 Alan Whitehead MP announced the creation of a task group to look into the future of the Fire Service College. The group has now reported, and I have arranged for copies of its report to be placed in the House Libraries today.

The task group concluded that there was a need for a central Fire Service training facility to serve as a centre of intellectual leadership for the Fire Service. It should take forward work on vocational development through the integrated personal development system, the civil contingency response arising from the events of September 11, and the modernisation agenda opened up by the Bain report. It recommended that a national workforce development/training strategy should be drawn up, which would define the role of the college in relation to other providers. It also recommended that there should be a long-term plan for improving the college's infrastructure and services.

I have accepted these and other recommendations of the report. I have agreed that the college should be given a £5 million grant to invest in its infrastructure this financial year, plus £2.5 million to invest in urban search and rescue facilities; and that it should actively examine ways of involving the private sector in its future development. This investment in the college should enable it to develop as a centre of excellence, and play a key role in the modernisation of the fire service.