Fire authorities

Fire authorities were established in 1947 and were responsible for oversight of fire brigades and appointment of the chief fire officers. From 1947 until 1975 the fire authorities were the large burghs, counties and counties of cities which were required to work together within a joint committee for each of the ten designated areas and submit an administrative scheme to the Secretary of State for Scotland covering their arrangements for providing fire services, the relationship between fire authorities represented on the joint committee and other matters.[1]

In 1975, regional and islands councils were designated as the fire authorities. The regional councils of Borders and Lothian formed a joint committee, as did the councils of Orkney, Shetland, Western Isles and Highland; while the other six regional councils were the fire authorities for their respective areas.[2] Under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 eight independent joint fire authorities were set up, covering the same geographical areas as before, with representation on their boards from the relevant unitary local authorities.[3] The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 removed fire services from local authority supervision and created a national service led by a Board of 10 members appointed by Scottish Ministers.[4]

Records of fire authorities before 2012 are generally found with the records of the local authority which provided administrative support. Copies may be held by the other local authorities which had representation on the fire authority.

Compiler: Elspeth Reid (2023)

Related Knowledge Base entries

Fire & Rescue Services

Bibliography

Blackstone, Geoffrey, A history of the British Fire Service (London: 1957)

Bell, James and James Paton, Glasgow: Its Municipal Organization and Administration (MacLehose, 1896)

Ewen, Shane Fighting fires: creating the British fire service, 1800-1978 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)

Ferguson, Keith, An introduction to local government in Scotland (The Planning Exchange, 1984)

References

[1] Fire Services Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. VI c.41) s.36, Sch.4.

[2] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c.65) s.147.

[3] Local Government etc (Scotland) Act, 1994 (c.39).