House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee FiReControl Fifth Report of Session 2009–10 Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 16 March 2010 HC 352 Published on 1 April 2010 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 Communities and Local Government Committee The Communities and Local Government Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for Communities and Local Government and its associated bodies. Current membership Dr Phyllis Starkey MP (Labour, Milton Keynes South West) (Chair) Sir Paul Beresford MP (Conservative, Mole Valley) Mr Clive Betts MP (Labour, Sheffield Attercliffe) John Cummings MP (Labour, Easington) Andrew George MP (Liberal Democrat, St Ives) Mr Greg Hands MP (Conservative, Hammersmith and Fulham) Anne Main MP (Conservative, St Albans) Dr John Pugh MP (Liberal Democrat, Southport) Alison Seabeck MP (Labour, Plymouth Davenport) Andy Slaughter MP (Labour, Islington South and Finsbury) Mr Neil Turner MP (Labour, Wigan) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publications The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at www.parliament.uk/clgcom. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Huw Yardley (Clerk of the Committee), Sarah Ioannou (Second Clerk), Josephine Willows (Inquiry Manager), Emma Gordon (Committee Specialist), Lorna Horton (Senior Committee Assistant), Nicola McCoy (Committee Assistant), Stewart McIlvenna (Committee Support Assistant), and Hannah Pearce (Select Committee Media Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Communities and Local Government Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 1353; the Committee’s email address is [email protected] FiReControl 1 Contents Report Page Acronyms/Glossary 3 Summary 5 1 Introduction 7 CLG’s disclosure of FiReControl reviews 8 2 An outline of current views of FiReControl 11 3 Delays and current timetable 13 Technical issues 16 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games 17 Alternatives to FiReControl 18 4 Project governance and management 20 Procurement issues 20 Relationship between CLG and EADS 21 Co-ordination between Firelink and FiReControl 25 CLG’s project management team 26 5 Lack of consultation and collaboration in the FiReControl project 29 End-user requirement 30 Solution Establishment Workshops (SEWs) 31 Responsibility for the lack of consultation 32 6 Relationship between Local Authority Controlled Companies, Regional Control Centres and existing local control rooms 34 Regional Control Centres (RCCs) 34 Legal issues 36 Existing local control rooms 37 7 Costs 39 8 Conclusions and recommendations 41 Appendix 1: Correspondence between the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, the Permanent Secretary and the Chair of the Committee 43 Formal Minutes 47 Witnesses 49 List of written evidence 49 2 Communities and Local Government Committee List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 51 FiReControl 3 Acronyms/Glossary AVLS – Automatic Vehicle Location System, a Global Positioning System transmitter that shows the exact location of each fire appliance in England (to be supplied by EADS) DCMT1 – initial data collection toolkit, which identifies what FRS address data is contained within NLPG (to be supplied by EADS) DCMT2 – a more complicated data collection toolkit, which combines the FRS address data with the NLPG (to be supplied by EADS) EADS – European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company; the main contractor for the IT component of FiReControl. Fire and Resilience Programme – the CLG-led programme reforming the Fire and Rescue Service, overseeing New Dimension, Firelink and FiReControl. Fire Control Sounding Board – employee representative body that considers all aspects of the FireControl project. FiReControl – a CLG-led project to provide a resilient network of nine regional control centres in England, supporting the mobilisation of FRS equipment and personnel to incidents. Firelink – a CLG-led project to upgrade each FRS’s current main radio-communication system so that they can talk to each other and to ambulance and police services on the same secure network. FRA – Fire and Rescue Authority; the legislative public and administrative body made up of civilians and councillors. FRS – Fire and Rescue Service; the operational fire fighting body. FSMC – the Local Government Association’s Fire Services Management Committee. ICCS – Integrated Communications Control System, telephony system, which is a component of the technical part of FiReControl (supplied by EADS). IRMP – Integrated Risk Management Plan LACCs – Local Authority Controlled Companies, made up of and owned by the former FRAs within the region. The LACC company directors are drawn from the FRAs. London does not have an LACC because the LFEPA (see below) will have responsibility for running the London RCC as a single authority. The FRAs retain the statutory duty to make arrangements for dealing with calls for help and for summoning personnel for the purpose of extinguishing fires and protecting life and property in the event of fire (under Section 7 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004). The LACCs will be the service provider that will enable the FRAs to meet their legal duty. Three RCCs are already under lease to LACCs. LFEPA – London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (runs the London Fire Brigade and makes decisions on key matters, including strategy, policy and the Brigade’s budget). 4 Communities and Local Government Committee Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) – terminals installed in individual fire appliances, allowing the transfer of simple messages and appliance status availability (supplied by EADS) MRMS – Mobilisation and Resource Management System; a primary component of the technical part of FiReControl (supplied by EADS) New Dimension – a CLG-led project to provide the fire and rescue service with equipment, procedures and training to respond to a range of threats¸ such as terrorist attacks and flooding. NLPG – the National Land and Property Gazetteer; the first national address list database that provides the source of addresses and geographical location of properties across England and Wales, made up of the input of Local Land and Property Gazetteers (LLPGs), which are maintained by local authorities. FiReControl aims to utilise this database and many FRSs are switching to this database. OMD – Officer mobile Devices (to be supplied by EADS) Practitioners’ Forum – a body comprised of stakeholders within the fire industry that provides advice to Government and Ministers on policy development. RCC – Regional Control Centres (nine, one for each region and one for London). Regional Management Boards – there are nine, one for each region, specific to the FRS. SEWs – Solution Establishment Workshops, created in the summer of 2009. Workshops comprising of representatives from EADS, the FRS and CLG to address the issue of direct collaboration and stakeholder involvement. FiReControl 5 Summary The primary purpose of the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) is the prompt and efficient mobilisation of firefighters in response to a fire or other related incident, in order to save lives and protect property. The aim of the FiReControl project is to enable this critical function to be carried out with greater speed, responsiveness and efficiency: it proposes to replace the existing 46 local FRS control rooms with nine purpose-built Regional Control Centres (RCCs). These centres will handle emergency 999 calls, mobilise resources and support the management of incidents, underpinned by a resilient network technology. The FiReControl project is part of a key strategic objective of the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG), but its current status is precarious. CLG and the main IT contractor, EADS, have had an adversarial relationship. They do not have a revised contract and there is no currently agreed project plan; until recently, there has been a lack of consultation and collaboration between CLG, EADS and those intimately involved in the Fire and Rescue Services (and some criticise the standard of the present consultation). Project management has been severely criticised, with a rapid turnover of crucial CLG and EADS senior staff. Since its inception, the costs of the project have escalated, and severe delays to the project mean that Fire and Rescue Authorities may now be expected to migrate to the new system at the very time that they should be concentrating on the high-profile safety concerns presented by the Olympic Games in 2012. The main representative bodies of the Fire and Rescue Service all have reservations about the project—many go further and have deep hostility—and fear that, as it is presently managed and designed, it will lead to a less efficient and less safe service. The project has been beset by a lack of openness and collaboration with the main stakeholders from the start. If CLG had been more open from the start, many of the ensuing problems might not have occurred. This lack of openness has continued to