A third of decontamination emergency vehicles set to be withdrawn

A third of emergency vehicles equipped to deal with a ‘dirty bomb’ or major contamination incident are being scrapped, according to a leaked document.

The leaked document see by the Labour party reportedly shows that 22 incident response units (IRUs) will be withdrawn on December 31, including 10 based in London.

IRUs are equipped with showers, protective clothing and detectors and are ready at all times to be taken out by speciality trained fire fighters from local brigades.

The document, a national resilience information note issued by the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOS), said the reduction was due to a review which found that 43 IRUs were sufficient to ‘meet the scale of event identified within the national resilience planning assumptions’.

The news has been criticised by Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham, who said: "It cannot possibly be the right time to cut, by a third, our ability to respond to serious terrorist incidents.

"Not only is it the wrong time, but it is even worse that these plans are being hatched in secret, without any public information or consultation.

"Ministers must put these plans on hold immediately and make a statement to Parliament as soon as it returns. It is disgraceful that we're days away from this happening without any debate."

A government spokesman said: "Public safety is our number one priority. Research and experience shows that speed is of the essence in dealing with major incidents, which is why it is better to issue all frontline responders with the training to begin decontamination rather than wait for specialist services to arrive."