Alarm bells as half of fire service could retire within decade

SCOTLAND’S fire service faces a ‘retirement bombshell’ with almost half of personnel eligible to leave within a decade.

And a third of senior officers in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) are expected to retire within a year, raising fears of a ‘significant’ staff challenge.

The concerns were raised by Audit Scotland in a report last week which also revealed the service faces a £400million maintenance and upgrade backlog – with fears fire stations could close and fire engines could break down.

The report said that 48 per cent of SFRS employees are now aged 45 and over, and this will rise to 67 per cent by 2026-27.

Anyone joining the force after 2006 must wait until they are 60 and have 40 years service before being allowed to take their pension. Before the change the retirement age was Deputy Scottish Political Editor 50 and many personnel are approaching this age.

Nearly a third of the service’s most senior officers, which includes deputy assistant chief officers and area managers, are expected to retire over the next year.

Out of 34 officials in these ranks, 11 are set to take their pension within 12 months.

Scottish Labour justice spokesman Daniel Johnson said: ‘It speaks volumes about the SNP’s abject failure to support the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service that it is now facing a retirement time bomb, with almost half of firefighters scheduled to retire in the next 20 years or earlier.

‘That could clearly leave the fire service dangerously short of manpower as well as bereft of crucial skills experience.

‘Coupled with a scandalous £400million maintenance backlog, it is increasingly clear the SNP has completely mismanaged our fire service.’

Mr Johnson has called for Justice Secretary Michael Matheson to address MSPs on the issue this week.

The report also showed that the number of deliberate blazes in Scotland rose 7 per cent to 15,863 in 2016-17.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘SFRS recruited 136 whole-time firefighters in 2017 and launched a campaign to recruit 300 more.

‘We have also provided additional spending power of £15million to support their transformation plans.’

Last week, it emerged that fire engines are at risk of breaking down on emergency calls as the service faces a £400million repairs backlog.

The damning Audit Scotland report showed that the SFRS inherited an ‘insurmountable’ funding black hole following centralisation.

It said the SFRS was landed with a funding backlog of £389million and warned this could rise to £406million over the next decade.

Politicians described the situation as a ‘national scandal’ and said lives would be put at risk as the service is expected to have to cut more staff.

The report warned that ‘difficult decisions’ over staffing and resources would have to be made in a bid to maintain the current state of vehicles, stations and key equipment.

It claimed failing to invest would ‘increase significantly’ the risk of ‘asset failures, such as vehicle breakdowns’.

Audit Scotland said it was ‘imperative’ the service reviewed and reshaped its capital assets.

This could mean ‘closing, moving, sharing or changing the use of some properties as well as considering the range and deployment of vehicles’.

‘Bereft of crucial skills’