FiReControl is a government IT mess

Thursday, October 22, 2009

A member of the shadow cabinet has given her support to a protest rally by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), saying the FiReControl project is another government IT mess.

FBU members are convening in Westminster today for a rally against the proposed changes to the Fire Service. In particular, members are against the FiReControl project, which will close local control centres and replace them with nine regional control centres across the country.

Caroline Spelman, the Conservatives' shadow communities and local government secretary, has backed the FBU's protest, saying the project is years behind schedule, beset by technical problems and repeatedly over-budget.

"There are better ways of improving civil resilience and adopting the latest technology, such as championing the tri-service centre model used in Gloucestershire which draws together all three local emergency services under one roof," she said.

The Communities and Local Government Select Committee has previously found that there is "no evidence to suggest any overall saving" from the project. The project has also been an embarrassment for the government. It was forced to admit in July that it will not be deployed in the first fire service until May 2011, will not be nationally available until after the London 2012 Olympics and has risen in price from £100m to £1.4bn.

Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the FBU, has previously called the project a "scandalous waste of public money".

Fire services minister Shahid Malik said: "Our priority for FiReControl is to deliver a modern system that meets the needs of the [Fire Service] and continues to ensure the safety of the public in the future for all types and scale of incident."