About the Service Delivery Review

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is carrying out a Service Delivery Review to look at ways of reshaping and modernising the organisation.

The primary aim is to ensure that resources – staff, stations and appliances – are matched to operational risk and demand across Scotland.

There are 23 options for change across 14 local authority areas.

The proposals will be part of a public consultation throughout the summer of 2025. 

Keeping firefighters and communities safe is always a priority. We have been guided by data from the Community Risk Index Model to identify where there is potential to redistribute resources to more effective locations.

The proposals include the closure of eight long term dormant fire stations in rural locations. A further five fire stations earmarked for potential closure are across Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. In some of these cases resources will be merged with nearby sites.

There are also plans to repair or rebuild fire stations to ensure firefighters have access to modern facilities.

A number of appliances and firefighters could be transferred to other locations to meet risk and demand. There’s also potential to implement a day duty shift pattern for wholetime firefighters in targeted areas, where on call availability is low.

The above video is also available in British Sign Language on YouTube.

Community risk

Data shows that some stations and appliances are not in the right places to meet risk and demand.

The Community Risk Index Model considers historical incident data and captures information about people, including where they are located, the types of buildings and environments they occupy, as well as the way that nature may impact them.

We have used this knowledge to inform all of the options for change.

Our buildings and the backlog of repairs

We have 356 fire stations based in communities across Scotland.

Many buildings require significant repair works to bring them up to modern standards. Some sites don’t have single occupancy bedrooms, toilets or shower facilities.

Other buildings have structural issues affecting the roof because of RAAC and this needs to be addressed.

This year (2025-26), the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service received £47 million for its capital budget, which is an increase on previous years but there's no guarantee that future funding will remain at this level. The capital budget is allocated for buying and improving assets, which includes building, fleet, equipment and ICT.    

However, it would cost in the region of more than £800 million to bring all buildings and equipment up to required standards, which is not a feasible option with the funding available.

Why now

The we haven't changed our operational footprint for many years, but communities have changed in many places.

We must ensure that its resources - staff, appliances and fire stations - are based in the right places to meet the changing needs of communities.

It’s also about freeing up resources that aren't positioned well and redistributing them into other key parts of the organisation where staff can make a greater impact.

The Service Delivery Review public consultation will run for 12 weeks.   

You can share your views through our online surveys.

We will also run a number of public meetings in community venues close to where affected fire stations are located.  

These public consultation meetings will be open to individual members of the public and to representatives of community groups and third sector organisations, such as equalities groups, who want to have their voices heard. 

You can share your views through our online survey on CitizenSpace. 

In addition to this online survey, we will be running a series of public engagement events in communities across Scotland. 

After the public consultation closes, we will take time to analyse and consider the findings, and a report will go to SFRS Board for a final decision at the end of 2025. 

Last year we conducted a pre-consultation exercise, ‘Shaping Our Future Service: Your Say’ which has helped to inform our decision-making. All elected officials from the Scottish and UK parliaments and all 32 local authorities were invited to participate in this exercise, alongside our staff, trade unions, members of the public, and key partners.

At the end of April 2025, a larger group of stakeholders (including SFRS staff, key stakeholder partner agencies, trade unions, and members of the public) met in Stirling to evaluate the final list of change option proposals to help inform what would progress to formal public consultation in the summer.

All options were scored as part of the pre-consultation process by representatives from stakeholder partner agencies and members of the public as well as staff representative bodies.

They were scored in terms of impact on workforce, impact on communities, financial viability, deliverability and sustainability.

Read our full report of the Options Development and Appraisal process.

• Service Delivery Review Consultation Document
• Service Delivery Review Options Development and Appraisal Outcome SFRS Board Report
• Service Delivery Review Glossary of Terms
• Service Delivery Review Consultation Privacy Notice
• Appendix A - Service Delivery Review Timeline
• Appendix B - East Service Delivery Area Technical Review Day
• Appendix C - Hurdle Criteria Workshop Report
• Appendix D - Criteria Setting Workshop Report
• Appendix E - Options Appraisal Workshop Report
• Appendix F1 - Full Business Impact Assessment Example
• Appendix F2 - Combined Summary Business Impact Assessments
• Appendix G - Finance Approach
• Service Delivery Review Temporary Appliance Review 2023
• Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessments