Office of the Deputy Prime Minister – in the House of Commons at 11:30 am on 8 June 2005.
Daniel Kawczynski
Conservative, Shrewsbury and Atcham
11:30,
8 June 2005
What the timetable is for the establishment of regional fire control rooms.
Jim Fitzpatrick
Minister (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) (London)
The FireControl project is due to complete its rollout by end of the financial year 2008–09. Any updates will be posted on the FireControl website (http://www.firecontrol.odpm.gov.uk).
Daniel Kawczynski
Conservative, Shrewsbury and Atcham
I thank the Minister for that response, but there are concerns in Shrewsbury about power and authority being moved away from our area to regional areas and Birmingham. What assurances can he give to professionals in the fire service in Shrewsbury that their professional advice will be taken on board when decisions are made in the future?
Jim Fitzpatrick
Minister (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) (London)
The hon. Gentleman makes a well rehearsed point. However, the fact is that most highly skilled control staff are under-used. In Shropshire, for example, they average nearly two hours between answering emergency calls and are employed on other tasks. The second point that I ask the hon. Gentleman to bear in mind is that the best communications for our fire and rescue service are needed, including caller location systems and data transmission to fire crews. The Government are committed to providing that. Finally, in the post-September 11 world our emergency control centres need to be resilient against attack or natural disaster; many simply are not. We will have to do something about that and I can give the hon. Gentleman an assurance that there will be full consultation and that an announcement will be made soon.
The office of Deputy Prime Minister is one that has only existed occasionally in the history of the United Kingdom. Unlike analogous offices in other nations, the Deputy Prime Minister does not have any of the powers of the Prime Minister in the latter's absence and there is no presumption that the Deputy Prime Minister will succeed the Prime Minister.
The post has existed intermittently and there have been a number of disputed occasions as to whether or not the title has actually been conferred.
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