New draft guidance on fire and rescue services providing commercial services has been published by the government.
The guidance follows consultation with the Business and Community Safety Forum and sets out new rules under which fire services would conduct private trading. A further consultation period is open until 1 October 2007.
Speaking at a presentation of the new guidelines to members of the British Fire Consortium, Berkshire chief fire officer and leader of the project, Iain Cox, said he thought around half of fire authorities will want to trade under the new rules. He also emphasised how important income from private trading was to some fire authorities, as it sometimes made the difference between them being solvent and not.
The new guidance means that if a fire service or fire authority wishes to trade, it would need to set up a separate company which would be at ‘arms length’ from its public service remit. It would only be able to offer fire safety related services, and would only be able to operate within the geographical area of its own fire authority. But writing in this issue, the BFC’s general secretary, Roger Chamberlain, says: “Many of our members are still very concerned over what they believe to be a totally unfair trading situation, when competing for business with an organisation operating under what may well be perceived to be an official government department.”
The consultation document can be downloaded at www.communities.gov.uk
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