Fire chiefs ‘squander' £500,000 on ‘virtue signalling'
This outlay comes despite significant operational challenges for the service, including the potential closure of fire stations and crumbling infrastructure.
The figures were obtained through a freedom of information request by the Scottish Conservatives.
• 'Unsafe' concrete found in fire and police stations across Scotland
The audit shows that £458,121 was allocated to salaries for diversity-related roles since 2023. Further expenditures included £8,937 for membership of the Diversity Champion scheme with the charity Stonewall and £6,000 for a celebratory event for Scottish women in the fire service, for a total of £484,888 since 2023.
The Scottish fire service has had its annual budget cut by £57 million in real terms over the past decade, and further demands for cost reductions have led to proposals to close up to 13 fire stations across the country. Additionally, a number of fire stations are in disrepair, with almost half of the service's 356 stations categorised as being in 'poor' or 'bad' condition.
A recent report revealed that 18 Scottish fire stations do not have running water, forcing firefighters to rely on wet wipes for personal hygiene and to clean equipment.
The fleet of fire engines is also deteriorating, with almost three quarters of the vehicles being more than a decade old.
Sharon Dowey, the Scottish Conservative MSP and shadow community safety minister, condemned the spending, telling The Mail on Sunday that the service 'can ill-afford to be shelling out on woke DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] jobs and virtue-signalling exercises'. She urged SNP ministers to 'ensure that crucial resources are being used appropriately rather than being squandered in this vein'.
Jon Henderson, the director of prevention at the Scottish fire service, defended the spending, stating that 'commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion is an integral part of our working culture'.
He explained that diversity-related spending and capital budgets for infrastructure were funded through different sources and could not be directly compared.
Henderson acknowledged the 'insurmountable capital backlog of more than £800 million' needed for repairs but maintained that the service is committed to advancing both its diversity goals and its operational needs simultaneously, saying it was 'not about prioritising one area over the other'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Courier
2 hours ago
- The Courier
Prisoners like Angus killer Tasmin Glass could have fewer freedom bids under parole reform proposals
Prisoners like Angus killer Tasmin Glass could be forced to spend longer periods behind bars in between parole hearings. A consultation on parole reforms has been launched by the Scottish Government, considering transparency and communication issues that plague victims in the current process. The consultation comes in the wake of The Courier's A Voice for Victims campaign which has called for these much-needed reforms. We have worked with the family of Glass' victim Steven Donaldson, Linda McDonald who survived an attack by Dundee murderer Robbie McIntosh, and the family of Barry Smullen who was stabbed to death in Perth. Justice Secretary Angela Constance spoke exclusively to The Courier as the parole consultation was launched, saying she believes the process must have victim wellbeing at its heart. The consultation considers 43 questions, which collectively have the potential for important reforms to improve the lives of victims and increase transparency. Potential areas for change include how long a criminal should have to wait between parole hearings after being denied by the board. Currently, for prisoners like Tasmin Glass it is 12 months, and for prisoners like Robbie McIntosh it is two years. Glass is a long-term prisoner while McIntosh is on an order of life restriction. That could be increased depending on the results of the consultation. Victims and their families have long pointed to this aspect of parole as one of the most traumatising, as they feel like they are constantly being forced to engage with the process. Another question raises the possibility of more people attending parole hearings. It asks if victims should have an automatic right to be there, or if media could watch proceedings. Other options include more detail being given by the parole board around its decisions to release or not release. One long-sought reform that is not in the consultation is the current automatic right for long-term prisoners to be considered for parole halfway through their sentence. The Justice Secretary said that question would need to come through a different part of legislation. The Justice Secretary spoke with The Courier in Dundee on Wednesday afternoon, the day of the launch. She applauded The Courier's campaign to help drive these reforms forward. 'I am determined that the parole system, at its very heart, has to have victims and their families and their interests,' said Ms Constance. She added: 'That's crucial to the deliberations that the parole board has to make that's ultimately about public safety as well as rehabilitation. 'The Courier has been a great advocate for victims and their families and has led a campaign that is driven on improvements. 'So while there are some really important fundamental questions about how we improve that overall openness, transparency, information, (and) treatment of victims. 'There are also issues that are important in terms of process and management. 'There's an appetite for us to be looking at all of that. 'This is an attempt by the government to be open and its built on the engagement that we've had with victims, and the advocacy that victims themselves, and papers like The Courier, and victims support organisations have championed.'
Press and Journal
3 hours ago
- Press and Journal
Alex Salmond's north-east adviser rubbishes Nicola Sturgeon book claims
A north-east political adviser who worked closely with Alex Salmond in government claims Nicola Sturgeon has spread 'falsehoods' in her new book. Geoff Aberdein took aim at three allegations in Frankly, including that the late SNP leader was against same-sex marriage. 'That one really actually gets my goat,' he said on the Holyrood Sources podcast. Like Ms Sturgeon, he had a ring-side seat during the Mr Salmond's time as first minister. On her side of the story, Ms Sturgeon wrote: 'What started as a calm discussion very quickly descended into a shouting match. Alex very rarely raised his voice to me – or vice versa – so I knew that I had a real battle on my hands to get him to agree. He was implacably opposed. But Mr Aberdein, who went on to help set up strategic advisory firm True North in Aberdeen, says that claim was demonstrably false. Another claim he disputes is the allegation Mr Salmond did not read the pro-independence blueprint before the 2014 referendum, known as the 'white paper'. 'To suggest, as I think was the purpose of this story, that he wasn't engaged in the process of a prospectus for independence is utterly nonsense,' he added. Mr Aberdein also rejected the idea that Mr Salmond could have possibly leaked details of his own alleged sexual misconduct – something Ms Sturgeon speculated about in the run-up to her book publication. Asked if he read the memoirs, he said: 'No I haven't and no I won't.' On the excerpts he has read about, he told the podcast: 'There was falsehoods at worst, fabrications at best. 'I was brought up that you didn't speak ill of the dead. But if you are going to speak ill of the dead, at least make your claims are accurate.' The claims come days after Mr Salmond's widow, Moira Salmond, from Strichen in Aberdeenshire, is suing the Scottish Government over its botched handling of an investigation into sexual harassment allegations levelled against him. Mr Salmond died of a heart attack in North Macedonia in October last year, aged 69. He previously lodged a claim in the Court of Session alleging misfeasance – the wrongful exercise of lawful authority – by civil servants. In her book, Ms Sturgeon laments losing Mr Salmond as a friend, which she compared with a grieving process. 'I had occasional, vivid dreams in which we were still on good terms. I would wake up from these feeling utterly bereft,' she added.
South Wales Guardian
3 hours ago
- South Wales Guardian
Former Salmond staffer rejects Sturgeon claims in book as ‘obviously false'
Geoff Aberdein, who worked for Mr Salmond when he was first minister, hit out at Ms Sturgeon, saying: 'I was brought up that you didn't speak ill of the dead. 'But I think if you're going to speak ill of the dead, at least make your claims accurate.' He told the Holyrood Sources podcast that Mr Salmond's widow Moira was 'particularly upset and frustrated at a lot of what has been said' about her late husband, who died suddenly in October 2024. Mr Aberdein continued: 'I think it was important to set out and correct the record not just because Alex is not in position to defend himself, but for myself as well and the series of other officials and civil servants that have contacted me.' Claims that Mr Salmond was the person who leaked the story of the sexual harassment allegations against him are 'obviously false', Mr Aberdein insisted. He said that when his former boss took the phone call to say the story about the allegations was being published by the Daily Record he was actually meeting lawyers to 'draft a legal summons to prevent Nicola Sturgeon's Government from making the allegations public'. Mr Aberdeen said: 'To suggest Alex was simultaneously leaking documents deeply damaging to his reputation whilst at the same time paying lawyers a lot of money to get a court order to prevent publication of the same material is just utterly absurd.' Mr Salmond went on to be acquitted of all the charges against him in a court case in 2020. Mr Aberdein also dismissed claims by Ms Sturgeon that Mr Salmond 'didn't read' the white paper on independence which had been produced by the Scottish government in the run up to the 2014 referendum. In her recently published memoir, Frankly, Ms Sturgeon spoke out about her 'cold fury' with her former leader over his 'abdication of responsibility' on the key document. Mr Aberdein – who said he would not be reading the book – accepted that his former boss 'delegated the responsibility for drafting the white paper to Nicola Sturgeon'. However he insisted: 'To suggest, as I think was the purpose of this story, that he wasn't engaged in the process of a prospectus for independence is utterly nonsense. The former Salmond chief of staff also rejected claims that Mr Salmond was 'apparently against same-sex marriage' – saying that this was 'demonstrably false'. Mr Aberdein told the podcast Mr Salmond had 'declared his personal support for gay marriage for the first time' in a newspaper article in April 2011. And he added that while the SNP election manifesto that year had pledged to consult on the issue Mr Salmond 'chose to come out… excuse the pun, the turn of phrase, ahead of that result, to say that he personally supported it.' With the SNP having won the 2011 Holyrood election, Mr Aberdein recalled 'being in the room with advisors, civil servants and indeed ministers about how we would go about reassuring different sections of our society about that legislation, particularly religious leaders and other civic leaders'. He also made the 'obvious point' that 'if Alex Salmond didn't want legislation to be progressed, he was the first minister of a majority SNP government, it wouldn't have been progressed'. Mr Aberdeen said: 'The point falls down on that alone.'
