Report - Fire Brigades Union

SECTION C — TUC AND LABOUR MOVEMENT
The group, comprising 28 Labour MPs, has used every
parliamentary mechanism available to further the FBU’s aims in
a number of policy areas, including:
● flooding and the Pitt review;
● the FiReControl project;
● firefighter safety;
● firefighter pensions;
● fire service funding cuts;
● Fire Futures;
● the London dispute.
Over the year the group tabled a total of 11 early day motions
(EDMs) and 43 written questions, as well as supporting other
EDMs in line with the union’s policies. There have been
numerous interventions on the floor of the House by members
of the group in support of the FBU, asking oral questions and
contributing to debates on legislation and policy matters in
both the Commons and the Lords. Members have also written
seven letters to government ministers, seeking meetings or
information on specific policy matters.
A significant part of the group’s work for the union continued
to focus on the ballooning cost and delay in the FiReControl
project which the Labour government embarked upon in
2002 after the need for upgrading control rooms was officially
acknowledged. The coalition government eventually
announced the scrapping of the project at the end of
December and the group will make the case in 2011 for the
long overdue upgrade of control rooms which remains
outstanding.
The Pitt review’s call in 2007 for the creation of a statutory
duty for the fire service to respond to flooding emergencies
continued to be resisted by the Labour government. Group
members made repeated efforts to amend the Flood and
Water Management Bill to reflect Pitt’s recommendation but
could not persuade the government to accept these
amendments during the bill’s passage through the Commons
and the Lords.
The group has represented these concerns to the new
government and has encountered a similar attempt to evade
the clear implications of Pitt’s recommendation to create an
appropriate statutory duty. Other aspects of the parliamentary
process have been used to press the case for statutory duty
and the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select
Committee’s inquiry into future flooding and water
management legislation has recommended to the government
that it accepts the FBU’s argument for creating a statutory
duty, in line with Pitt’s recommendation four years ago.
Health and safety was also a key campaign area for the group
in the year past. Lord Young of Graffham’s appointment by
David Cameron to an advisory role on health and safety issues
was quickly followed by media interviews in which Lord Young
made a number of provocative comments, chief amongst
them being the ambition to “remove the police and the fire
service from health and safety legislation”. Subsequent
meetings between the union and Lord Young established that
this was not a serious threat to the health and safety of public
servants but political posturing. However, the Trade Union
Coordinating Group, of which the FBU is a founder member,
will continue to monitor the government’s intentions on health
and safety and will hold a lobby of Parliament on 2 March 2011
The lack of national standards in reporting firefighter injuries
and the increase in fatalities in recent years was highlighted to
the government and this remains an area of ongoing work for
the group.
In June the coalition government appointed the former Labour
cabinet minister John Hutton to head a review of public sector
pensions. This signalled the new administration’s determination
to force through cuts to all public sector pension schemes,
including the three which apply to firefighters. The group
supported the FBU’s submission to the review and noted the
interim report’s indication that Hutton will propose reforms of
the fire service pension schemes.
The new government’s spending cuts will hit all public services
hard and the fire service will be no exception, despite George
Osborne’s misleading comment in his Comprehensive
Spending Review (CSR) statement in October that: “In
recognition of the important service provided by the fire and
rescue service, we have decided to limit its budget reductions
in return for substantial operational reform.”
The CSR, in fact, announced a 13% cut in central government
funding of the fire service, a 25% cut in local government
funding and a two-year freeze on council tax. The Fire Futures
review, chief fire officers appointed by the government to
propose reform of fire and rescue services, estimates that the
fire and rescue service faces a 30% budget cut over the next
four years. The government also stated that decisions on
making cuts to local fire service budgets will be taken by
individual fire authorities.
London MPs in the group worked to highlight the shocking
decision taken by the London fire commissioner Ron Dobson
and the chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning
Authority, Cllr Brian Coleman, to issue sacking notices to all
5,557 London firefighters to force them to agree to changes to
shift patterns.
The group highlighted this disgraceful attack on basic
employment rights and industrial relations. MPs also pointed
out the basic threat to public safety of Brian Coleman’s
decision to take 27 fire appliances out of fire stations across
the capital and to hand them to strike breaking firm AssetCo.
The fire engines remain out of public service and the group is
working with the union to get these appliances back into the
fire stations they belong to.
The Fire Futures review reported in mid-December on its initial
suggestions for future reform of the fire and rescue service.
The group is trying to establish when the government intends
to respond to these, chief amongst which is greater integration
with the ambulance service.
We continue to look at ways to work with non-Labour
parliamentarians, as well as increasing the active core of
the group.
FBU Annual Report 2011 89