Fire services in Scotland are provided by Fire and Rescue Services each under the control of a Fire and Rescue Authority (in Fife and in Dumfries and Galloway) or a joint fire board (elsewhere). On 1 April 2013 the eight fire and rescue services across Scotland will be amalgamated into a single, new Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service will have its headquarters in Perth.
Under the pre-2013 system, the board or authority exercises local control of each fire and rescue service on behalf of the council or group of councils within each service's area and from whom the members are drawn.
Since the establishment of a devolved Scottish government in 1999, national control is the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Justice in the Scottish Government, having previously lain with the Secretary of State for Scotland (the relevant "Secretary of State" referred to in legislation applicable to Scotland) since the 19th century.
Fire Services have undergone dramatic changes in recent years, due to both a change to operational procedures in the light of terrorism attacks and threats, and also in response to the 2002 publication of a review of the fire services in the United Kingdom by Professor Sir George Bain. His terms of reference were described as follows: "Having regard to the changing and developing role of the Fire Service in the United Kingdom, to inquire into and make recommendations on the future organisation and management of the Fire Service..." In the foreword to the review, Bain stated that it was carried out independently and objectively: "...the Review was put together with the co-operation of the Government, the employers' organisations and fire authorities in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland."
Read more about Fire Services In Scotland: Legislative History of Fire Services, Scottish Brigades (1975-2013), Her Majesty's Fire Inspectorate For Scotland, Other Fire and Rescue Services
Famous quotes containing the words fire, services and/or scotland:
“The Laws of Nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Nature—were Man as unerring in his judgments as Nature.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)
“Working women today are trying to achieve in the work world what men have achieved all along—but men have always had the help of a woman at home who took care of all the other details of living! Today the working woman is also that woman at home, and without support services in the workplace and a respect for the work women do within and outside the home, the attempt to do both is taking its toll—on women, on men, and on our children.”
—Jeanne Elium (20th century)
“A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.”
—James I of England, James VI of Scotland (1566–1625)