Dear Members,

I would like to welcome all our new IAAIUK members, including my son Anthony Mansi, who has joined the London Fire Brigade this year and started a career in a truly fascinating discipline. We have had two successful Training Road Shows in Bath and Nottingham covering subjects such as the revised National Occupational Standards for Fire Investigators and the three levels of Fire Investigation. I would like to thank all our members that supported the events by attending the days and those that were instrumental in arranging the venues. My thanks also go to Dr Anderson of Hawkins and Associates for assisting sponsorship of the Bath event, the South West Command Development Centre (Bath) and Nottingham Fire and Rescue Service for the arranging the venues.

The Summer Training Conference, which was held in Guernsey in July, was an incredible success. It is an event we had been promising our Channel Island IAAI-UK members for many years, fulfilling our promise to deliver training to all parts of the UK. I am very proud to announce the launch of the Fire Investigation Technician Programme, which was first discussed at a CFI meeting in Victoria, British Columbia in 2007. The objective was to deliver a programme that would verify practitioners’ knowledge, experience and training at a level that is a ‘building block’ towards the Certified Fire Investigator Programme.

Thanks to the hard work of members of the IAAI (International) this programme is now available to everyone. At the moment there are approximately 10 applicants each week applying to challenge the test.

I attended the 2009 IAAI Annual Training Conference in Arlington, Texas in May this year, which was a five-day packed training programme delivered by experts from around the world. I attended the Committees that I sit on representing not only the IAAI-UK membership, but also members from all 71 Chapters. They include the CFI Committee, the Fire Investigation Standards Committee, the Chapters Committee and the Membership Committee. If there are any issues that you want me to take to any of those Committee meetings then please let me know by emailing me directly using the "contact us" link above.

I have attended three Arson Control Forum Meetings this year representing the IAAI-UK membership. Chaired by Max Hood, Commissioner for West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, we have been discussing good practice from around the UK and the new ACF website where practitioners can email their local initiatives for others to use, if applicable. The first annual report has been drafted and agreed by members of the Forum to include the aim and objectives summarised as follows:

Aim:
To achieve a sustained reduction in the number of deliberate fires and related deaths, injuries and damage to property and the environment. Objectives:

1. To improve the way we investigate and prosecute deliberate fire setting, and provide and analyse data.

2. To improve interventions aimed at children and young people involved in fire setting and anti-social behaviour.

3. To promote partnership working and demonstrate the role arson reduction has in Local Area Agreements and us helping reach Public Service Agreement targets.

4. To improve interventions aimed at larger loss fires and fires in community assets such as schools.

5. To improve overall performance in arson reduction through the identification of model policies, procedures, protocols, investigation and prosecution processes, evaluation techniques, funding opportunities and training interventions available nationally.

6. To improve communication within the arson reduction community and the public as a whole and lobby key stakeholders on relevant issues.

7. To continue to develop interventions aimed at tackling vehicle arson.

8. To assess the impact of the economic down turn on arson.

I am sitting on a working party to address Objective 1, with Justin Lewis of the Forensic Science Service and Sally Averill of the Crown Prosecution Service. If there are any issues that wish me to take to the ACF meetings, then please contact me. Also please visit the new site at www.arsoncontrolforum.gov.uk The IAAI-UK 2010 Annual Training Conference and AGM was scheduled to take place in London on Monday the 18th of January 2010 at the London Fire Brigade’s Training Centre at Southwark. Due to booking difficulties we have had to move the date to Monday 15th February 2010.

Finally, my usual reminder to ask all members to ensure we have your correct email and postal addresses. If you have changed your internet service provider lately and have not been receiving IAAI-UK emails, such as ‘IAAI-UK requests from members’, then please email me with your up to date address. Thank you for continuing to support your forum, which now has approximately 800 members, and I look forward to seeing you at the next meeting here in London.

Peter Mansi
President, IAAI-UK Chapter
January 2010