Fire service spent £27m on overtime in five years

Figures were published after FoI request by Lib Dems

Scotland’s fire service spent around £27 million on overtime costs for uniformed staff over a five-year period, statistics show.

Figures published following a Freedom of Information request by the Scottish Liberal Democrats show £27,468,936 was paid out by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) between 2013-14 and 2017-18.

The highest overtime spend was recorded in the most recent period, with £5,970,215 paid out in 2017-18.

The only year in which the figure fell below £5m was in 2016-17, when the total cost was £4,939,267.

In a report by Audit Scotland published in May last year, it was highlighted that SFRS had “inherited a backlog of £389m needed to maintain and invest in its property, vehicles and equipment”.

It said: “This backlog is insurmountable without transforming its current model for delivering services and additional investment.”

Scottish Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur said the service has lost hundreds of firefighters since a reform of Scotland’s police and fire services in which regional divisions were merged in 2013.

Mr McArthur said: “Scottish fire and rescue deserve enormous praise for the work they do keeping us safe and there will always be occasions in which paying for additional staff cover is the most sensible and practical option.

“However, with an average of 20 retained firefighters or volunteer staff leaving the SFRS every month... the risk is that these bills are being accrued because there are simply not enough staff to fulfil the needs of the service.”

Martin Blunden, SFRS chief officer, said: “The appropriate use of voluntary overtime is an integral part of organisational stability, particularly in a large organisation such as the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service with its complex resourcing requirements.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “These overtime costs during this five-year period – which put extra money into the pockets of hard-working fire staff – were only 2% of the service’s resource budget over that period.

“Overtime is a crucial tool for emergency services to deal with a range of issues and major incidents. “Since the reform of the fire service, there have been no compulsory redundancies and no station closures.”

The service has lost hundreds of firefighters since a reform of Scotland’s police and fire services in 2013.