HOLMES CALLS FOR NATIONAL BODY TO OVERSEE SAFETY FOR FIREFIGHTERS

12.00.00am GMT Thu 13th Nov 2008

Liberal Democrat MP for Chesterfield Paul Holmes has today called for the creation of a national body with responsibility for developing and agreeing safety critical operational guidance for all fire-fighters.

This comes after a report from the Fire Brigades Union that identified weaknesses in training, risk assessments and crewing levels as well as a lack of safety guidance.

Commenting Paul Holmes MP said

"This report highlights some glaring problems with this Government's approach to protecting those who protect us.

"The lessons of this report have to been learned it is essential that a national body is created and crucially properly resourced to develop safety guidance that will prevent the injuries and sadly deaths of our brave fire-fighters."

"This report also highlights the shocking statistics that were revealed to in an answer to my Parliamentary question that our fire service is suffering from chronically low crew levels, with Derbyshire having even lower levels than the rest of the UK.

"I urge the Government in the strongest possible terms to heed the lessons of this report, invest in a body to develop safety guidance and to properly staff our fire service.