Fire Service Facing £42.7M Funding Gap
The fire service is facing a funding gap of £42.7 million by the end of the decade - equivalent to the cost of over 1,000 firefighters, the public spending watchdog has warned.
The fire service is facing a funding gap of £42.7 million by the end of the decade - equivalent to the cost of over 1,000 firefighters, the public spending watchdog has warned.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) achieved £16 million of savings in the first year after the old eight forces merged, with no impact on the public and a continued reduction in casualties, Audit Scotland said.
It is on track to exceed expected savings of £328 million by 2027/28 but future cost pressures and likely reductions in funding will lead to a potential funding gap of £42.7 million in 2019/20, according to auditor estimates.
And the gap could be even higher if other services are protected during the coming period of public sector spending cuts.
Audit Scotland recommends that merging bodies could make savings by reducing staff numbers, rationalising assets, sharing services and streamlining processes.
The majority (70%) of SFRS's £260 million total annual expenditure relates to staff costs, with 4,003 whole time firefighters costing £145 million. The remaining £62 million is split between the 4,483 other SFRS staff.
Audit Scotland has issued a red-light warning on staff attendance, indicating its performance is more than 10% below target.
SFRS slashed its target for firefighter absences from 8.4 shifts to 6.4 shifts in 2014/15, but only achieved 7.1 shifts.
The target for other staff absences was slashed even further from six shifts to 2.6 shifts, but it only achieved 4.5 shifts.
Caroline Gardner, Auditor General for Scotland, said: "The creation of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was well managed. This achievement provides a valuable opportunity to share the lessons of how this was done with other public bodies going through a merger process.
"The service is reviewing how it will work in the future, and there is still a lot of hard work to do. Even without the funding gap identified in our report, a long-term financial strategy would be essential.
"It's now crucial that the service agrees this strategy, and supporting plans, to show how it will close the funding gap and achieve savings by 2019/20 and beyond.''