Statutory Rules of Northern Ireland
1996 No. 491

FIRE SERVICES
The Fire Services (Appointments and Promotion) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Made
14th October 1996

Coming into operation
25th November 1996

The Department of the Environment, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by Article 9(5) of the Fire Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1984(1) and of every other power enabling it in that behalf, hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Fire Services (Appointments and Promotion) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 and shall come into operation on 25th November 1996.

Regulations amended

2.  The Fire Services (Appointments and Promotion) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1979(2), shall be amended as follows—

(1) In regulation 7 (promotion to a rank higher than that of firefighter)—

(a)in paragraph (6)—

(i)the number “(i)” shall be omitted;

(ii)for the number “(ii)” there shall be substituted the letter “(b)”, and

(iii)the words “or” to the end shall be omitted;

(b)in paragraph (6A) for the letter “(a)” there shall be substituted the letter “(b)”;

(c)paragraphs (6B) and (6C) shall be omitted;

(d)in paragraph (7) for the words “(in that or an earlier year)” in each place where they occur there shall be substituted “, on one of the three successive immediately preceding occasions on which it was held,”; and

(e)after paragraph (7) there shall be inserted—

“(7A) A member of the brigade who has, prior to September 1996, passed Part I of the examination referred to in sub-paragraph (a) or, as the case may be, in sub-paragraph (c) of paragraph (7), shall be treated for the purposes of those sub-paragraphs as if he had passed that part of the examination in September 1996.”.

(2) In paragraph (a) of Part II of Schedules 1 and 2, for the words “Drill Book” there shall be substituted “Training Manual”.

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of the Environment on 14th October 1996.

L.S.
Trevor Pearson
Assistant Secretary

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)
These Regulations further amend the Fire Services (Appointments and Promotion) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1979 by removing the ineligibility to sit a written promotion examination of a person who has failed that examination on the two previous occasions on which it was held, and who has failed, on each occasion, to score more than 25% of the marks available. The Regulations also ensure that a person cannot enter Part II of the examination for promotion to leading firefighter or sub-officer unless he has passed Part I of the examination in question on one of the three most recent occasions on which it was held.
The Regulations remove spent transitional provisions and make a further transitional provision.
The Regulations also substitute for the references to the Fire Services Drill Book, in the provisions relating to the conduct and organisation of drills as part of the practical examinations for promotion, references to the Fire Services Training Manual (which is replacing the Fire Services Drill Book).


(1)
S.I. 1984/1821 (N.I. 11); see Art. 2(2) for definition of “the Department”

(2)
S.R. 1979 No. 167; relevant amending Regulations are S.R. 1985 No. 323, S.R. 1991 No. 219, S.R. 1992 No. 237, S.R. 1993 No. 360 and S.R. 1994 No. 228