Fire service budget allocation ‘woefully short’ of what is required, union warns

The budget increase for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is “woefully short” of what was required, MSPs have been told.

The SFRS had said it would need at least an additional £31 million of resource funding to avoid further reductions in firefighter numbers and £61 million of capital funding to repair its stations.

In the Scottish draft Budget announced in January, the fire service budget is expected to increase by £23.8 million to £436 million.

Speaking at the Criminal Justice Committee at Holyrood on Wednesday, Colin Brown, executive council member for Scotland at the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), said the increase of the budget was “woefully short” of what was requested.

He said: “The draft budget that’s delivered on, in cash terms, the highest resource budget uplift that the Scottish Fire Rescue Service ever received.

“It’s about a 21.5% increase on the resource budget but it’s woefully short of what the chief actually asked the Scottish Government for and said to the Scottish Government he would require in order to progress strategic priorities such as the service delivery review that we’re here to discuss today.”

He said there is a “guilty knowledge” of workplaces exposing firefighters to risks which the “woefully inadequate” capital budget for the SRFS will not manage to change.

He said: “Equally, the capital budget, that’s the budget that pays for the fire stations that our members work from, fire stations that are woefully inadequate and the committee and parliament are well aware of our position, that there is guilty knowledge that firefighters are in workplaces that they are exposed to higher levels of cancer risk and other health diseases that could kill them earlier than the general population.

“There is guilty knowledge about that and the capital funding for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is so woefully inadequate that £1.4 million is not going to scrape the sides on the changes that are required to deliver safe workplaces for our members. That needs to be resolved.”

SFRS chief officer Stuart Stevens said he was “disappointed” with the outcome for the budget.

Mr Stevens said: “Clearly there’s financial challenges across the Scottish Government which we absolutely acknowledge and clearly there are pressures. However, I was disappointed in terms of the outcome of the budget for SFRS.

“£18 million is a significant increase in the resource budget and that is absolutely welcome. But colleagues will remember the last time that I appeared here I was seeking at least £30 million and that was to make critical improvements to the organisation.”

Due to budget restraints since the service was formed in 2013, more than 1,200 firefighter jobs have been lost, according to data released by the FBU.

Data obtained from the SFRS by the Scottish Conservatives through Freedom of Information requests last year showed the average response time to an emergency was increasing.

In 2024 the average time for an appliance to arrive at the scene following a 999 call was eight minutes and 20 seconds in comparison to an average of six minutes and 51 seconds in 2014.

Labour MSP Pauline McNeill asked if Mr Stevens could confirm whether the implications of the budget would lead to a further reduction in firefighters.

He responded: “I do believe that that could potentially be the case, particularly in years two and years three.”

He also confirmed that final decisions on proposed changes to more than 30 fire stations across Scotland as part of the Service Delivery Review will be made after the Scottish Parliament election, with outcomes expected by the end of June.

The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.