Clause 10 - Directions relating to particular
Fire and Rescue Services Bill
4:15 pm
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
Clause 10 gives the Secretary of State powers to direct an individual fire or incident. That is an astonishing power. I do not imagine that the Secretary of State envisages exercising it personally. I would certainly have some reservations about the Deputy Prime Minister sitting in the basement of 26 Whitehall pushing little wooden flags around a plan of the English regions. If we moved in that direction, I would have an even greater concern about the Secretary of State for Health taking to himself the power to intervene in individual operations.