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Fire and Rescue

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Public Service Accountability

Abstract

The supposed ‘success’ of Theresa May’s police reform has justified the ‘model’ for recent reform of the Fire and Rescue Services. Fire and Rescue Services entered the period of the coalition government on an improving and accelerating service delivery trajectory, albeit still trailing the other services. The coalition government’s ‘austerity localism’; aligned to financial constraints turned this direction of travel on its’ head. By 2015 and 2016, both the NAO and PAC were demanding significant regime change in the service. Since 2015, there have been improvements to accountability and transparency, (it would be difficult not to act and act decisively, given the inadequacy of previous arrangements). More recently differences between promises and implementation, ambitions, and delivery are beginning to appear.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This statement from the Secretary of State is no longer available and was later corrected and ‘updated’ on the governments websites on 8th May 2015 (DCLG 2015a).

  2. 2.

    Bonfire night is the annual celebration characterised by bonfires and fireworks on the 5th November aka Guy Fawkes night. Guy Fawkes was a member of the Gunpowder Plot who attempted (unsuccesfully) to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, UK

    Peter Murphy

  2. University of Nottingham Business School, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Kirsten Greenhalgh

  3. Durham Business School, Durham University, Thornaby, UK

    Laurence Ferry

  4. Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, UK

    Russ Glennon

Authors
  1. Peter Murphy
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  2. Kirsten Greenhalgh
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  3. Laurence Ferry
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  4. Russ Glennon
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Murphy, P., Greenhalgh, K., Ferry, L., Glennon, R. (2019). Fire and Rescue. In: Public Service Accountability. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93384-9_6

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