Andrew Dismore

The Fire Authority Appointments Committee (of which I am a member) has appointed Dany Cotton, who  is currently Director of Safety and Assurance,  as our New interim Fire Commissioner from 1 January 2017. She will succeed Commissioner Ron Dobson, who retires at the end of the year. Dany will be London’s first woman Chief Fire Officer and the first in the UK of any major fire brigade. I am pleased that we have appointed such an experienced and well respected fire and rescue officer from a strong field of candidates, and who can take on the challenge of protecting Londoners, maintaining the exceptionally high standards of service Ron Dobson has built up during his nine years as London Fire Commissioner.

The Mayor has appointed Anthony Mayer a former Chief Executive of the Greater London Authority, to carry out a full and independent review of the London Fire Brigade to ensure it has sufficient resources to keep Londoners safe. It is expected his review will report in mid-October. I have met Mr Mayer and given him my views. This review will be considered alongside the Mayor’s terror preparedness review being led by Lord Harris.

These reviews will feed in to the preparation of the next London Safety Plan, LSP6, which should be published for consultation towards the end of the year, with implementation from April 2017. I am part of the members’ working party developing this plan. I am particularly concerned that we need to improve the attendance times of Fire and Rescue Units after I revealed shocking Fire And Rescue Unit Attendance Figures For Camden

I also think we need clear targets for attendance at high rise building incidents.