The Fire Brigades Union Firestorm Report

That the Parliament notes the publication of the Firestorm report from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU); understands that the report exposes the impact of what it sees as over a decade of cuts to the fire service; believes that these have resulted in the loss of over 1,200 jobs, with another 780 jobs threatened, including in the Central Scotland region, falling standards of training, the withdrawal of fire appliances and high-reach vehicles and the dedicated 24-hour River Clyde rescue boat crews, a crumbling estate, an aggressive management culture, an ageing workforce exposed to dangerous contaminants, a lack of personnel across the wholetime and retained duty systems, as well as operations control, and a service ill-equipped to respond to the impact of the climate emergency; considers that the research saw over 1,500 FBU members take part in a comprehensive survey and that its results provide overwhelming evidence of a service in crisis; believes that this can only worsen if there is no change to the Scottish Government's five-year flat cash budget settlement, and notes the calls for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the Scottish Government to take forward all of the recommendations in the Firestorm report and to engage with the FBU on their implementation.