Highland & Islands Fire Board
The Fire Board is the Political entity that governs the Highlands & Islands Fire and Rescue Service.
The Service acts on behalf of the Highland and Islands Fire Board, a Joint Fire & Rescue Board consisting of 24 members:
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16 from the Highland Council
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4 from Comhairle nan Eilean Siar [Western Isles Council]
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2 from Orkney Islands Council
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2 from Shetland Islands Council.
Board Convener |
Vice-Convener |
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Councillor
Richard Durham
Highland Council |
Councillor
Andrew Drever
Orkney Islands Council |
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Subsidiary Working Groups
The Board has a number of subsidiary bodies including a Policy and Finance
Working Group, an Integrated Risk Management Working Group and an Audit Working Group.
The services of the Clerk to the Board, Treasurer's Office and other supporting services are
supplied from the Highland Council on a cost basis.
The Board's Capital Budget for 2008/09 is £3,206,000.
The Board's Revenue Expenditure for 2008/09 is £23,546,485 including loan charges.
Over the past five years the Board's key priority has been obtaining an adequate funding settlement that recognises the unique nature of service provision in the area. The current system for allocating Grant Aided Expenditure largely on the basis of the employment status of its personnel has mitigated against the Board as it employs very few Wholetime firefighters and the largest proportion of its staff are retained or auxiliary. These two groups attract the lowest funding allocation.
The Board was faced with a situation that only some 36 stations out of its 128 were equipped with vehicles and Breathing Apparatus [BA]. It was faced with criticism from Her Majesty's Inspector of Fire Service and the Health and Safety Executive over the levels of equipment and training of its Auxiliary personnel and it embarked upon an upgrade to provide appropriate levels of equipment and training to its personnel. Because of the scale of the problems facing the Service the Constituent Authorities of the Board have consistently funded the Service above the GAE figure assigned by government. This has been in the face of severe constraints on all authorities brought about by economic and social impacts on their communities.
Community Fire Safety
The Service is committed to the aim of Community Fire Safety and has recently reorganised its priority workloads to reflect this.
In the Highland Council's area Community Safety is led by the Highland Wellbeing Alliance partnership and the Chief Fire Officer chairs the Community Safety steering group of the Alliance.
The partnership working experience has proven invaluable to the Service and a number of initiatives have sprung from it. Similar working relationships are being developed with all the constituent authorities.