The lack of a National standard for fire and rescue service response has led to a situation where variations across Scotland’s eight services mean an inconsistent state-of-affairs, a postcode lottery.

What is required is a Scottish mechanism to determine a Critical Attendance Standard for a range of incident types that when used in each fire and rescue service will afford consistency across Scotland.

The response to any one of a range of incidents should be the same across Scotland because that response should take account of best practise, Standard Operating Procedures, Safe Systems of Work and comply with Health and Safety at Work legislation etc.

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The adoption of a Critical Attendance Standard determines the number of firefighters required to attend an incident. To be efficient the fire and rescue service must be at an incident early enough to make an effective intervention.

The Maximum Response Time should be set Scotland wide. The optimum outcome of any incident can only by ensured by the prompt arrival of an adequately crewed and equipped fire service response.

The requirement to comply with both a Critical Attendance Standard and a Maximum Response Time will ensure that each fire authority maintains adequate resources suitably located to meet the life risk in its area.

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If there is a serious desire across Scotland to reduce the number of fire deaths and injuries, there must be an acceptance that the link between fire service response times and fatality rates are real.

The people of Scotland must be able to;
 Raise the alarm early
 Have their call dealt with promptly
 Have the fire and rescue service arrive quickly
  With enough of a crew to deal with the incident
 A properly trained and resourced crew
  That can safely complete the task

In order to have this from their Fire and Rescue Service, that service must have a Scottish Response Standard to work to.

Read the Parliamentary Brief Newletter Link