[12 March 2007]

Announcement of State-Of-The-Art IT Contract Awarded to Improve Fire Safety

On Wednesday 7 March 2007, Fire Minister, Angela Smith, announced that the contract to supply the infrastructure for the national network of nine regional control centres for the Fire and Rescue Service would be awarded to EADS Defence & Security Systems. The contract is worth £200 million over eight years.

Today´s announcement represents the Government´s commitment to providing a modern Fire and Rescue Service, which is equipped to deal with major incidents.

The Chairman of East Sussex Fire Authority, Councillor Michael Murphy has welcomed the Government´s announcement that the I.T. contract has been confirmed, so that work can now continue apace with the 9 Regional Control Centres for Fire and Rescue Services across the country. With many of the new RCC buildings already in the course of construction, including the Centre for the South East region, which will be located in Fareham, Hampshire, concerns were being expressed with regard to the impact of any further delays upon these national project timescales. Councillor Michael Murphy agreed that the new system would provide increased resilience across the country for Fire and Rescue Services. However, he also indicated that the Fire Authority expected it to deliver the value for money savings promised and wished to ensure that existing East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service Mobilising and Communications Staff would be offered appropriate opportunities within the organisation to support them if they did not secure jobs in the new control centre in Fareham. He commended the current staff for their professional approach and dedication to the local communities served, but also recognised that the announcement brought them all one step closer to what would be likely to result in major changes in their working careers

The Regional Control Centres will relay vital information to fire crews and deploy the nearest appropriate firefighting vehicle. They will also be able to automatically back one another up during major incidents providing a highly resilient and robust Fire and Rescue Service.

The Fire Minister, Angela Smith, said; “This is a major step forward for the Fire Control project. The Government´s first duty is to protect the public. At the heart of this project is the ability for the Control Centres to back each other up and to provide information direct to fire crews on the ground. The technology provided under this contract will help to identify the location of incidents more quickly and precisely, ensuring that the correct equipment is mobilised as efficiently as possible. Ultimately, this will help to further reduce the number of lives lost to fire.” She went on to add, “The choice of the right supplier for this projects I.T requirements is therefore vital. I am very pleased to announce today that Communities and Local Government intends to award EADS Defence & Security Systems this £200 million contract.”

The Government has decided that continuing under the current system is not an option if national resilience is to be enhanced and the public better protected. The current system relies on 46 control rooms, which are not networked, operating on different standards and settings and with differing levels of equipments and technology. Nor can they deploy firefighting equipment across Authority boundaries. The cost of networking all 46 control rooms and supplying them with the new technology is estimated at more than twice the cost of the FIReControl project.

Communities and Local Government have been working in close partnership with members of the Fire and Rescue Service, the LGA and CFOA to deliver the FIReControl project.

Phil Toase, President of the Chief Fire Officers´ Association said; “I am very pleased that we have reached this important milestone in the FIReControl project and welcome the investment in the Fire and Rescue Services that it represents. CFOA will continue to work with the Government and now with the supplier, to ensure that the project will enable the Fire and Rescue Service to deliver a service to the public that rises to the challenges of the 21st century.”

EADS Defence & Security Systems will be responsible for building and running the systems that will ensure data relay within the Fire Service, in turn, this gives fire crews as much information as possible to help them tackle the incident they are attending and ultimately aiming to further reduce deaths in fires.

The project is being procured so as to allow it to be phased-in and to avoid a single "hand-over" day, which will ensure the system is reliable and will give extra confidence to the public and fire crews as the system changes.

[Allison Gilson]