What plans does the Minister have to retain staff and review management practices within the fire service, following the news of a mass departure of part-time firefighters due to controversial management decisions?
There are long-standing challenges in recruiting and retaining on-call firefighters across the UK, especially in rural areas where most of them are based.
This is not primarily because of management decisions. The main reasons that are cited include a decline in the number of incidents to which firefighters respond, which makes the job less rewarding, alongside wider trends such as long distance commuting, zero hours contracts and second homes in rural communities, which reduce the number of possible recruits.
One means of addressing this would be to broaden the role of the Fire and Rescue Service to support the NHS, which has the potential both to secure significant health benefits and to make the role of an on-call firefighter more personally and financially rewarding. I remain committed to pursuing such changes and to working with Fire and Rescue Service partners in seeking the necessary assurances that the Service could take on such work safely and effectively, in the interests of both the workforce and the communities they serve.