Scotland’s firefighters are stepping up every day. It is time for politics to step up too.
Maggie Chapman's speech from her Member's Business Debate on the future of Scotland's Fire and Rescue Service.
Scottish Green MSP Maggie Chapman used her Member's Business Debate time today to highlight the issues that Scotland's fire and rescue service face, and the lack of protection they are offered to do their job without long-term risks to their health.
Below is the motion that Maggie spoke to, along with the text of her speech given in the debate.
Text of the motion lodged by Maggie Chapman MSP
That the Parliament recognises, and is grateful for, the work of the around 7,600 firefighters and support staff in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), who help keep people and nature in the North East Scotland region and across the country safe; understands with concern that, since 2013, the SFRS resource budget has been reduced in real terms by £58 million per annum, with 1,239 firefighter posts lost, and that the recent Service Delivery Review could see the loss of fire stations and appliances across the country; welcomes the "dedicated work of Fire Brigades Union (FBU) Scotland in campaigning for a well-resourced and well-equipped service, and its 2023 paper, Firestorm, a Report into the Future of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service; notes the shared commitment of FBU and SFRS to firefighter role expansion and, in particular, the FBU’s campaign, DECON, which aims to shed light on the health risks of fire contaminants to firefighters; understands that firefighters have a mortality rate from all cancers 1.6 times higher than the general public; notes the DECON campaign’s recommendations, which include annual health monitoring and recording of exposures for all firefighters; further notes what it sees as the impact of the climate emergency on the SFRS, including an increasing frequency and severity of wildfires and flooding, and notes the FBU’s Climate Emergency campaign, which aims to highlight the impact of the climate crisis on fire and rescue services.
Text of Maggie Chapman's speech from her Member's Business Debate
"I am grateful to those who supported my motion to allow this debate to go ahead. I had the Scottish Greens’ first MBD in this session – on St Fittick’s Park, and I am proud to devote this penultimate Scottish Greens’ debate to the fire service.
So I speak today with immense gratitude for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service – and hello to those in the gallery this afternoon – for all of the around 7,600 firefighters and support staff – who, every single day, place themselves between danger and the people and places they serve, or support those in need.
"Because they are there at the worst moments of our lives.
"When a family home is ablaze. When a car is twisted around a tree. When floodwater rises, when wildfires rage, when the climate emergency stops being an abstract concept and becomes an immediate, terrifying reality. When someone is on the phone, hoping for rescue, even when it can’t get there.
"Firefighters are not just emergency responders – they are a national strategic asset. And yet, for more than a decade, it sometimes seems as though we have treated them as if they were expendable.
"Since 2013, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service resource budget has been cut by £58 million a year in real terms.
"1,239 firefighter posts have been lost. Appliances sit uncrewed. Response times have lengthened year on year.
"And now, through the Service Delivery Review, communities are being asked to contemplate the loss of stations and appliances that they know – in their bones – keep them safe.
"Let us be honest: this is not modernisation driven by vision. This is change driven by austerity.
"I want to speak directly about the North East, and about Balmossie community fire and ambulance station. The message from the responses into the consultation on the Service Delivery Review could not be clearer: communities, workers, unions, local representatives – all have said the same thing: Balmossie must stay open, with no loss of appliances.
"This is not special pleading. It is common sense.
"Balmossie serves a growing population, complex industrial risks, major transport routes and communities that already feel stretched. Closing or downgrading it would increase response times and put lives at risk. I want to pay special tribute to Alan Park at Balmossie for his tireless activism – awareness raising, supporting people to understand how the consultation worked, and so much more. Thank you, Alan!
"And of course we know similar concerns are being expressed elsewhere – like in Lochgelly in Fife. I know my colleague Mark Ruskell would be here if he could, representing the workers and constituents who worry about the proposed changes too.
"If we ignore these warnings, we won’t be able to say we did not know.
"Presiding Officer, firefighters are being asked to do more, with less, in conditions that are increasingly intolerable. That is why the work of the FBU matters so profoundly. I want to put on record my thanks for their tireless campaigning, and for their 2023 report Firestorm, which set out not just a critique, but a credible vision for the future of our fire service.
"I want to speak particularly about the FBU’s DECON campaign, which this Parliament has debated before, and which I have been proud to support.
"Firefighters are 1.6 times more likely to die from cancer than the general public. 5 times more likely to die from heart attack. Nearly 3 times more likely to die from stroke.
"That is not a coincidence. That is an occupational scandal.
"The science is clear. Fire contaminants – toxic, carcinogenic substances released during fires – are killing firefighters slowly, long after the flames are out. The World Health Organisation recognises firefighting as a carcinogenic occupation. Professor Anna Stec’s research has reinforced what firefighters have known for years: their work is poisoning them.
"The DECON campaign is not radical. It is responsible.
"Annual health monitoring. Recording of exposures. Proper decontamination facilities. Clean kit, clean stations, and safe systems of work.
"Some progress has been made, and that should be acknowledged. But without sustained, ring-fenced investment, these measures will remain patchy, unequal and inadequate. If we know the risk, and we fail to act, then that failure is on us.
"And this debate is also about the future – and about potential. There is shared commitment between the FBU and SFRS to role expansion. Firefighters already prevent, protect and respond. With the right training, staffing and funding, they could do even more – alleviating pressure on the Scottish Ambulance Service, supporting the NHS, strengthening community safety and resilience.
"But let me be absolutely clear: role expansion cannot be a back-door cost-cutting exercise.
"It cannot be done on the cheap. And it cannot be imposed on a service already stretched to breaking point.
"An agreement in principle was reached in 2022. What has been missing ever since is government backing. Political leadership means turning warm words about public sector reform into real investment that allows reform to happen safely, fairly and effectively.
"We cannot talk about a fire service fit for the future while firefighters work in stations that lack basic dignified facilities.
"While over a hundred stations don’t meet minimum toilet standards. While hundreds lack proper changing areas. While capital investment lags hundreds of millions behind what is needed.
"And we cannot talk about climate resilience while not investing properly in the very service that responds to floods, wildfires and extreme weather events.
"Our firefighters do not ask for praise. They ask for the tools to do their job, the numbers to do it safely, and the protection they deserve in return for the risks they take.
"This Parliament now faces a choice. We can continue down the road of managed decline, consultation by consultation, closure by closure. Or we can choose investment over cuts, prevention over reaction, and justice over neglect.
"Keeping Balmossie open.
Backing the DECON campaign in full.
Funding role expansion properly.
Rebuilding stations.
Recruiting firefighters.
Reducing response times.
"That is what a fire and rescue service fit for the future looks like.
"Scotland’s firefighters are stepping up every day. It is time for politics to step up too."