I am aware that there are some recruitment and staff retention difficulties in parts of the fire service which militate against a full regime of fire prevention inspections. I arranged via the Fire Services Council to develop and run three special fire prevention courses for operational officers. These have been held in April-May and 60 officers are now available to fire authorities to deploy in the fire safety area. This further integration of operational and prevention activity is a welcome development. I have encouraged fire authorities to use the available resources in their fire safety activities and I am satisfied that they will do so.
The issue of recruitment will also be considered as part of the wide-ranging strategic review of fire safety and fire services which I announced in January. Proposals from consultants to carry out the review are currently being evaluated. I expect to have the consultants in place by early June and the review finalised in the autumn. I will be looking to the review report to further inform my thinking and policies on this issue.