Emergency Services and Civil
Contingencies
79. There was a subtle shift in policy between the
White Paper on the English regions and the draft Regional Assemblies
Bill. In the White Paper it was felt "appropriate for elected
assemblies to take on the main coordination role in regional contingency
planning, working closely with the Government Offices".[89]
In the draft Bill that role in contingencies planning is not mentioned,
and appears to have been superseded by the network of Regional
Resilience Forums coordinated by the Government Offices. The draft
Bill did though envisage a fire and rescue role for elected regional
assemblies, with new regional fire and rescue authorities acting
as functional bodies of elected assemblies, similar to the arrangements
with the Greater London Authority.
80. A capacity to coordinate emergency services at
a higher level than individual service authorities is desirable.
However, the Committee is not convinced that government policy
has addressed these issues coherently. The role envisaged for
assemblies in contingencies planning has been downgraded. We view
this function as one inherently suited to the kind of strategic,
coordination role envisaged for elected assemblies. There is clearly
a case for a strategic view across all the blue-light services,
and indeed other functions such as health service planning for
major incidents, in contingencies planning. It seems that the
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister could not persuade other Government
departments involved in contingencies planning to relinquish responsibilities.
We do not regard such apparent Whitehall turf defence strategies
- as suggested in the following exchange with Chief Constable
Strachan - as a sound basis for policy-making:
Mr Betts: Mr Strachan, you have commented
on the fact that you have some doubts about the ability of the
Home Office and the ODPM to work together. Is this Bill a reflection
of that, that it is ODPM's Bill, so they have managed to find
something in their remit, namely fire, to give the regional assemblies
to do, but the Home Office have not really wanted to play ball
with this at all and, therefore, police are not affected by the
legislation?
Mr Strachan: That is,
with respect, sir, a leading question, but yes, I would agree!'[90]
81. Responsibility for fire and rescue services which
was to be devolved to the elected regional assemblies lies with
the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. ODPM proposed that regionwide
fire authorities should be created which would be accountable
to the Elected Regional Assembly. The evidence we heard on the
transfer of this general role to the regional level was rather
mixed. Mr Richard Bull, Chief Fire Officer for Tyne and Wear,
was for example sympathetic to a regionalised service in the North
East, though insisted that this was because of particular geographical
circumstances in the North East which did not necessarily apply
elsewhere: 'in this country one size does not fit all'[91]
One particular concern was that fire services have a strong community
focus and logic, which would be endangered if local/county fire
services were rationalised into region-wide bodies. Councillor
Les Byrom from the Merseyside Fire Authority said: 'The county
badge of the local fire authority, of the local police authority
is very powerful and it is closer to the people'.[92]
82. We also heard that fire services are already
cooperating voluntarily and effectively on region-wide scales
to ensure a capacity to respond to major incidents and to enjoy
other benefits of economies of scale.[93]
In some cases, such as in the north east, this voluntary cooperation
maps neatly onto official regional boundaries. In other cases
it does not.
83. Because of concerns that they could lose their
community focus and scales for operation we remain unconvinced
of the rationale for establishing regional fire and rescue services
as functional bodies of elected regional assemblies. There is
a need however to develop the wider role foreseen in the White
Paper in which elected regional assemblies would lead the planning
process for civil contingencies, involving all the blue light
services, but across a narrower part of their fields of responsibility.
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