'Risk to life' warning over a decade of Scots firefighter staff cuts

Fire chiefs have warned of further cuts to firefighters amid a cash crisis this year which union leaders say will see a 20% cut in numbers in a decade.

The Fire Brigades Union in Scotland has said there should be an official investigation into a "crisis" in staff resourcing and into the state of the service since the creation of the single fire service in 2013 which meant the number of control rooms across the country was reduced from eight to three.

It says the cuts mean that Scotland is experiencing increased threats to life and public safety.

READ MORE: Fire safety concern over plans to cut 'emergency' alarm call outs by up to 85%

Some 40 people died in fires in Scotland in 2021/22 - 13 more than in 2019/20, the year before the pandemic.

The service has said it now has an “insurmountable backlog” in capital spend requirements and needs “critical investment” to ensure its 357 stations, 1,620, and “tens of thousands of items of operational equipment” are “fit for the 21st century to support evolving community risk”.

And it warned that due to having core capital funding fixed at £32.5 million for the last seven years by the Scottish Government, it now needs a “minimum” of at least £60 million per year.

Service executives say a projected five-year flat cash budget until 2027 has removed ten wholetime fire engines, while 150 retained fire engines are regularly unavailable due to significant recruitment and retention issues.

The SFRS has announced that its own projections mean it will need to save a minimum of a further £14m next year, which would result in the loss of a further 339 firefighters and 18 fire engines, with more to come.

The Scottish Government said that as of March 31, 2022, there were 11.3 firefighters per 10,000 population in Scotland, compared to 6.1 In England and 8.4 in Wales. Colin Brown, FBU Scotland executive council member said: "These cuts cannot be done, Scotland's population hasn't shrunk. Scotland's land mass hasn't shrunk.

"Ultimately this all comes down to a lack of investment in the service and we are at a tipping point where Scotland needs to decide and elected members of the Scottish Parliament need to decide what the fire and rescue service looks like going forward.

"If it is done on the cheap, and done with sustained budget cuts then we have impact through increased risk to life and increased risk to property damage.

"On this trajectory, the fire and rescue service will likely become the fire and recovery service, because the likelihood of rescuing is restricted by continued budget cuts and reduced firefighter numbers."

It comes as members of the union across Scotland are expected to be consulted on strike action in response to the cuts.

Official figures show that the overall SFRS staffing headcount - which includes non-uniformed staff - has dropped by nearly 1000 from 8,581, before the creation of the single fire service, to 7,619 in 2022/23. The union is predicting another 700 staff could go in the near future due to the a five year 'flat cash' budget settlement.

Data shows that the number of wholetime operational staff has been cut from 4159 ten years ago to 3490 now while the numbers on the retained duty system, who respond to emergencies while having other employment, has dipped from 3,052 to 2,735.

FBU Scotland have said one tenth of the retained duty service leaves every year and there is a 29% vacancy level which it said "must be addressed as a matter of urgency". They say that the Scottish Parliament should oversee an inquiry into its resourcing.

The numbers in control rooms, the nerve centres of the service, whose staff take calls and mobilise resources, has dropped by nearly a quarter from 234 to 172 over nearly ten years.

Fire brigade union officials say that staffing levels are "inadequate and regularly fall below agreed safe levels".

The FBU in Scotland will today launch its analysis of what it calls the crisis facing the service at the Scottish Parliament today (Tuesday) which calls for an end to budget cuts.

Its survey of 1500 serving firefighters found that 85.41% agreed or strongly agreed that they had personally experienced instances where a cut to fire service resources such as appliance availability and running below agreed crewing or staffing levels have "adversely affected operational performance at emergency incidents."

It also found nearly three in four said that the Scottish Government should increase investment to support the development of a firefighter's role.

It comes as the union said that the impact of a major fire which caused extensive damage to six homes in South Lanarkshire was exacerbated by cuts to fire and rescue services.

Firefighters were alerted following a “well-developed” fire in the Whitelee area of East Kilbride at around 4pm on Friday.

At the height of the blaze four fire appliances were rushed to the scene alongside a high-reach appliance.

The FBU said the impact of the blaze could have been “significantly reduced” if budget cuts to the local service had not been implemented.

They say that at the time of the incident, East Kilbride’s second appliance was unavailable as it was being used to transport staff to training near Edinburgh.

Previously, a stand-by appliance would have been provided as cover by a local two-appliance station such as Hamilton or Castlemilk but both stations have had their second fire engine removed in the latest round of budget cuts.

Union officials said that with no stand-by pump available from East Kilbride there was a delay in fire appliances arriving at the scene, giving the fire more time to take hold and spread to neighbouring properties.

In June, the union raised concerns that fire appliances will be removed from over ten stations across Scotland due to budget cuts.

They said the cuts would see appliances removed from over ten stations, including four in Fife with Methil, Dunfermline and Glenrothes each losing one fire engine, and Kirkcaldy losing its height appliance.

Tayside Kingsway East, in Dundee, would lose one fire engine, while another is to be removed from the sole station in Perth.

The FBU's Firestorm report says that the difficulties the service is facing "is being ignored by the political leaders who set inadequate budgets and then claim that cuts to services are ‘operational decisions for SFRS management’ and nothing to do with them.".

A Scottish Government spokesman said:“Firefighters play a vital role in protecting our communities and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has continued to deliver the high standard of services required to keep Scotland safe. That is why, despite difficult financial circumstances due to UK Government austerity, we are providing SFRS with more than £368 million this year, an increase of £14.4 million on 2022-23.

“Whilst the allocation of resources, along with the recruitment and retention of firefighters, is an operational matter for SFRS, we are maintaining front-line services, with a higher number of firefighters in Scotland than other parts of the UK.

“Ministers will continue engaging with the FBU to discuss their concerns.”

Ross Haggart, chief officer of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said the safety and well-being of staff was "paramount".

He said: “We have been clear that we must modernise as a service to ensure we are best placed to meet the changing risk and demand we face across Scotland, while also addressing our ongoing financial challenges.

He said the service would continue to work with all representative bodies including the FBU on potential impacts of any future savings and identify potential areas for improvement.

SFRS deputy assistant chief officer Stephen Wright said: “We will always attend every emergency and will always mobilise the nearest available appliance to an incident using our standard mobilisation practices.

“On Friday, October 20, at 4.01pm, we were alerted to reports of a well-developed fire affecting several properties in Whitelee, East Kilbride and Operations Control immediately mobilised two appliances to the scene.

“Two further appliances and a high reach appliance were also requested by the on-scene Incident Commander to support the tactical plan and bring the incident to a resolution.

“There were no reported casualties involved and our crews worked tirelessly to bring this incident to a safe conclusion."