The Fire Brigades Union has dismissed John Prescott’s remarks on Radio 4 this morning, blaming firefighters and civil servants for the failure of the FiReControl project. Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary said: “Only a minister who doesn’t know what’s going on blames others. Prescott has no excuse. He was told by the FBU, among others. He was clearly not doing his job properly.

“Instead of accepting his own central role in authoring and driving this disastrous project, he prefers to blame those who work in the service and pass the buck.

“The central failing of FiReControl was political. Prescott was the prime mover and the Secretary of State who could have ended the project at any point. The FBU was the only organisation to have warned from the beginning that the project was flawed.

“Certainly senior civil servants did continue to implement the project when they knew it was failing. Certainly, the private technology providers ripped off the public purse, as did the owners of the PFI-financed control rooms. But Prescott ignored our warnings.

“Now the current government is making the same mistake. It is closing control rooms, seeking to privatise the fire service and cutting firefighter jobs. It needs to learn the same lesson – stop these attacks and listen to the professional voice of the fire and rescue service – the FBU.”

Contact

FBU communications 0208 541 1765

Notes

FBU press release, 4 January 2005 – “This dangerous plan will axe all our excellent command and control centres and be a financial burden on the fire service and council tax payers for years to come. It’s expensive, it’s risky, it won’t save a single life and could end in total failure.”

FBU press release, 11 October 2005 – “This Project has lost all credibility within the fire service. Everyone else knows this Project is already a disaster but the Government wants to plough on regardless.”

The FBU gave evidence to the CLG Select Committee, to civil servants and to ministers directly over the eight years of the project.

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