The Chief Inspector's Plan 2025-2028

9.  The SFRS is the UK’s largest fire and rescue service and one of the largest of its kind in the world. The Service was formed on 1 April 2013 and replaced the eight antecedent services that had existed in Scotland since 1975.

10.  The SFRS has 356 fire stations: 79% of these are crewed by on‑call firefighters (working the Retained Duty System (RDS) or the Volunteer Duty System (VDS)); 21% are Wholetime crewed (this includes 23 Wholetime fire stations which also have an on‑call resource working within them).

11.  The SFRS has a statutory obligation to “have regard” to our inspection reports. The Service has an internal process for considering HMFSI reports and our recommendations and observations. Officers of the Service compile an action plan for each report we produce, and these action plans are submitted to either the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, or the Service Delivery Committee of the SFRS Board for consideration and scrutiny. The Chief Inspector is invited to attend and contribute to specific agenda items at both of these committees thus providing the Inspectorate with oversight of progress and assurance that recommendations have been considered and action taken.