Overview

The GBP 330 million New Dimension programme has enhanced the 46 English Fire and Rescue Services' capacity to respond to terrorist attacks and other catastrophic incidents such as major flooding. However, better value for money could have been secured in the procurement of the specialist vehicles and equipment. The programme was introduced following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. It involved procuring specialist vehicles and equipment, training 10,000 fire fighters, and helping to prepare Fire and Rescue Services to tackle terrorist and other major incidents. The equipment has already been used successfully at three major incidents to date: at the Buncefield fire; during the 2007 summer floods; and, at the Warwickshire warehouse collapse in November 2007. Funding uncertainty and poor programme, project and financial management in the early days of the project resulted in delays in introducing the equipment and significant cost overruns. A fraud of GBP 867,200 within the programme remained undetected for 9 months and in procuring one vehicle type, for example, poor contracting and record keeping resulted in a delay of a year and unnecessary costs of between GBP 3 million and GBP 8 million. Improvements in programme and financial management have since been made but more still needs to be done to address weaknesses which might hamper future incident response. In particular the department need to address uncertainties over the respective roles of national co-ordinating bodies and develop a strategy for national and regional multi-agency practice exercises.

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9780102954340

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