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Firefighters cautious about Home Office's collaboration plans

But Fire Brigades Union representative says service is 'not grieving' about it being joined with policing at ministerial level
Published - 06/01/2016 By - Josh Loeb - Police Oracle

Firefighters are “not grieving” about control over fire policy being shifted to the Home Office, a union chief has said.

But Dave Green, the Fire Brigades Union’s national officer, told PoliceOracle.com he fears the rights of firefighters would be “stripped away”.

He also says he is “not wholly convinced the Home Office is going to do anything different as regards funding”.

Fire policy used to fall within the remit of the Department for Communities and Local Government, but the government has now moved responsibility for it in an effort to speed up collaboration with police forces.

Mr Green said: “It appears the fire service will now be run by the Home Office, which is what used to happen many moons ago before Labour came in, in 1997.

“We’re used to being run from there, and the way they used to run the fire service was reasonable.”

He added: “There’s no grieving from us about leaving the DCLG, under whose tenure some 7,000 firefighter jobs have gone [between 2010 and 2015].”

But he said further information was needed before it was clear exactly what the change meant.

“We don’t know the detail,” he said. “All we know is that Mike Penning, who is the Minister for Policing, has had fire inserted into his job title.”

He also said he did not want to see the roles of police officers and firefighters being merged or for the latter to be viewed, in the eyes of the public, as “agents of the police”. And he called for governance of the two services to be kept separate.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council declined to express a view on the change, saying it was a matter for the government, but some Conservative police and crime commissioners have hailed the development.

Hertfordshire’s PCC David Lloyd said: "There are many similarities between the work of the police and fire services and opportunities for us to work more effectively together which are currently being explored.  

"The joining of these two portfolios together at ministerial level can only help that process further, and it is something I warmly welcome."

The Home Office has said the move will “pave the way for improvement in local fire and policing by providing clear leadership, supporting greater collaboration and delivering value for money for taxpayers”.

PCCs are also likely to be given the option of overseeing fire brigades.

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