Powers of fire-fighters etc in an emergency etc
Fire and Rescue Services Bill
11:15 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
My hon. Friend is right. We have all seen news footage of massive fires in Australia and in the American west. It was necessary to create fire-breaks there, and although we have not, I hope, had to do that for a very long time in this country, it was the traditional method of containing very large fires in big cities. I believe that the power to demolish buildings would be included within the powers given by clause 43, in cases where a fire has broken out. The fire authorities tell me that that is a good codification of their existing powers. It deals effectively and adequately with the powers that they need in case of an outbreak of fire, or of a road traffic accident, but it does not allow them to take any preventive action.
Amendment No. 130 deals with a slightly different point in relation to subsection (1)(c). That subsection give powers to firefighters in case of an emergency of another kind, in respect of which functions have been conferred on the fire and rescue authority. That is what we might call a ''section 9'' emergency, in respect of which the Secretary of State has conferred functions on the authority. The powers given under subsection (1)(c) are:
''for the purpose of discharging any function conferred on the fire and rescue authority in relation to the emergency''.
So unless the conferring of the function specifically includes the function of protecting life and property, that power could not be exercised under the provisions of that subsection in order to protect life and property. The Minister may well envisage that every function that he confers under clause 9 will include the specific function of protecting life and property. But this amendment seeks to make that a general provision, so that whatever the function being discharged under clause 9—be it a function of preventing, or of rescuing people from, flooding; or a function of cleaning up the after-effects of nuclear or chemical contamination—there will always be an overarching reference to the function of protecting life and property. That would authorise a member of the fire and rescue authority in the way envisaged in the clause. That would return the focus to the principal purpose that a fire and rescue authority and its employees must have in mind—protecting life and property. I hope that the Minister accepts that this amendment focuses on that prime responsibility.