Fire Minister announces funding for successful control centre projects
Fire Minister Bob Neill has today announced funding of £74 million to support a range of locally-led projects to improve the resilience and …
Fire Minister Bob Neill has today announced funding of £74 million to support a range of locally-led projects to improve the resilience and efficiency of local fire and rescue control rooms across England.
This follows on from the termination by the Coalition Government of the last Government’s FireControl project, which sought to regionalise fire control rooms across England.
Fire Minister, Bob Neill MP, said:
The Coalition Government is adopting a more localist approach to help secure improvements in national resilience, rather than trying to impose a forced regionalisation of the fire service. These locally-led bids show we can strengthen national resilience and adopt new technology to save lives, without top-down Whitehall micro-management.
The Chief Fire Officers Association said:
The Chief Fire Officers Association National Resilience has developed a detailed peer support process designed to provide assistance and support to fire authorities with the implementation of their control room improvement plans.
Notes to editors
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A full copy of today’s Written Ministerial Statement can be found at: www.communities.gov.uk/statements/newsroom/2097824.
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In December 2010, Fire Minister Bob Neill MP announced the termination of the main IT contract and closure of the FiReControl project. The project began in 2004, and had aimed to replace England’s 46 standalone fire and rescue control rooms with a nine regional control centres. The contract was terminated because the contractor EADS Defence and Security (now trading as Cassidian) Ltd could not meet the requirements of the project within an acceptable timeframe.
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The National Audit Office produced a critical report of the FireControl programme in July 2011, available here: www.nao.org.uk/publications/1012/failure_of_firecontrol.aspx (external link).
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The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) consulted on the future of fire and rescue control services in England from 13 January to 8 April 2011. The consultation document can be found at: www.communities.gov.uk/publications/fire/fireandrescuecontrolservices and the response document at: www.communities.gov.uk/publications/fire/controlservicessummaryresponses.
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Today’s list of successful projects is as follows:
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Summaries of fire and rescue authorities bids can be found here: www.communities.gov.uk/publications/fire/futurecontrolsummaries and the ‘National Picture’ of fire and rescue authority improvement plans here: www.communities.gov.uk/publications/fire/futurecontrolnationalpicture.
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