Last week, the Fire Brigades Union’s regional secretary told the

Daily Record

that it wants a statutory expert council to be established so that he and his colleagues can have a seat at the table when the new benefit is designed, independent of the Government. The FBU’s DECON research shows that large numbers of firefighters get cancer and that it is, therefore, an industrial disease. Firefighters want to have their voice heard in the design of the benefit, and the cabinet secretary knows that she will have to deliver the benefit very soon. Will she back the FBU’s call, back Mark Griffin’s bill and give them their seat at the table?