Member

This is a serious matter, but in Committee it was said, “Don’t worry, there’s a national organisation, the HSE, which is the competent body to assess the risks of an installation catching fire”. That may well be the case, and it may continue to be so, but that is only part of the story. Once an installation is burning, all the warm words and soft soap from the HSE headquarters in Bootle, miles away, count for nothing. When you dial 999, it is not the HSE that turns up mob-handed; it is the local fire brigade and the local planning authority, possibly with emergency tents and residents’ refuges. National bodies such as the HSE just do not have the staffing, powers, equipment or local knowledge to pick up the pieces appropriately when the deep-seated fire gets out of control, or indeed to anticipate the local consequences.