Clause 36 - Prohibition on employment of police
Fire and Rescue Services Bill
10:00 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
Amendment No. 152 would insert the words ''as a fire-fighter'' after the phrase:
''No member of a police force may be employed by a fire and rescue authority''.
The original purpose of the provision in the 1947 Act, as I understand it, was to prevent police constables from being employed as retained firefighters on the slightly curious grounds that such employment might give rise to confusion at the scene of a fire. I am sure that the Under-Secretary will be able to give a robust defence of that and say how such confusion might come about, although it seems to me that the matter could be dealt with relatively easily. However, I suspect that the employment of police constables as retained firefighters is not at the leading edge of most fire authorities' plans for resolving the retained firefighter crisis, given that there is plenty of work to be done in police forces up and down the country.