The Fire and Rescue Services Bill has been published by the government.

The Bill will drive forward the Government's modernisation agenda as set out in the recent White Paper 'Our Fire and Rescue Service'.

The White Paper responded to the Independent Review of the Fire Service by Professor Sir George Bain which called for a new approach by the service to reduce fires and save more lives.

Nick Raynsford, fire and rescue service minister, said: "The Bill is a crucial step forward in the government's modernisation agenda for the fire and rescue service. It marks the first substantial piece of legislation to modernise the service in over half a century.

"We all recognise the professionalism and bravery of firefighters in what remains a dangerous job. But the fact remains that despite the success of the Service in attending fires, too many lives are still lost.

"What we need is greater focus on preventing fires in the first place. The Bill will help shift the focus of the service towards a more preventative and risk-based approach through, in particular, the new duty to promote fire safety.

"And for the first time the wider role of the service, in dealing with road traffic accidents, responding to the greater threat posed by terrorism and environmental disasters such as serious flooding, will be put on a proper statutory footing."

Forum Response: Fire Brigades Union

Andy Gilchrist, general secretary of the FBU, said: "Some good ideas are simply used as window dressing for a cuts programme. Nick Raynsford is leading the rush over the cliff of modernisation without pilot-testing a single proposal.

"A listening government would try out new ideas not rush into them without knowing whether they will work or not. This headlong dash is dangerous folly and would never be attempted in any other public service.

"You cannot have significant cuts in an already overstretched service without the lives of firefighters and the public being put at risk.

"They boast of improving health, education and the police by employing many thousands more people. Yet they claim they can improve the fire service by cutting it.

"This is nonsense and the public see it as the transparent piece of spin that it is. It is a recipe for disaster.

"The Fire Service has been involved in prevention work for nearly 100 years. But prevention is never a substitute for intervention. We don't launch crime prevention measures then slash the police force.

"We don't tell people to stop smoking and eat their fruit and veg and then cut the number of doctors and nurses and close hospitals. Prevention is an important addition to the rescue role of the fire service but it is not a replacement for it.

"And the investment in prevention measures is pathetic: £5 million extra each year for 3 years. It's useful but it hardly adds up to major expenditure on a new initiative.

"The government needs to commit itself to a major reduction in all fire deaths and injuries and reducing the number of all fires wherever they are and however they start. "There is only a commitment to reduce fire deaths in the home. There is no commitment to reduce arson deaths at all and no mention of reducing deaths and injuries outside the home.

"We need zero-tolerance of all fire deaths. That means having a target of ZERO fire deaths however caused and wherever they happen. When the government sets testing targets like that we know they will be serious."