Living in Birmingham for over 40 years Jagtar was schooled, attended university and worked for the fire service for 24 years before moving on promotion to Bedfordshire as Deputy Chief Fire Officer.
Having achieved a degree in Business Studies, a chance encounter with the recruitment officer led him to joining West Midlands Fire Service. His 24 years of service saw him move from a recruit firefighter in July 1977, serving as a manager at a number of levels and rising through the ranks becoming a Senior Divisional Officer September 1996. Jagtar Singh was appointed Deputy Chief Fire Officer of Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Service on 14 May 2001 and moved to Biddenham at the same time with his family.
Whilst serving in the Service Jagtar achieved a number of firsts being the most senior Asian officer appointed to many ranks and ultimately was the first Asian Principal Officer and acting as Chief Fire Officer for over a year before retiring in 2006. His experiences and deep interests led to him being often asked to address and speak on behalf of the service on Equality and Diversity issue.
In January 2003 Jagtar received the Public Servant of the Year Award at the Asian Achievement Awards ceremony in Birmingham. In June 2003 he was included in The Queen’s Birthday Honours List and awarded an OBE for his work on equality and diversity in the Fire Service.
Jagtar has organised and planned many national conferences and has spoken at national and international events on a wide range of issues. Jagtar worked with the Department for Communities and Local Government to develop a business case for diversity for the fire and rescue service.
From June 2006 to September 2009 Jagtar was a Non Executive Director of East of England Ambulance Service in September 2009 Jagtar took post of NED with Luton and Dunstable Hospital. and in the same year set up his now very successful Equality and Diversity consultancy.
Jagtar is keen to encourage greater ethnic minority representation in all public services. From his position within the trust he hopes he can encourage more people from BME communities to consider careers with the ambulance service. Following his appointment as Director with the East of England service he is now the lead NED for the Ambulance Service on the National Equality Forum.
He is active in voluntary work being a Trustee for the Healing Foundation, Employment Opportunities for the Disabled and Bedford Race Equality Council. Until recently Jagtar was also President of the West Midlands Fire Service Romania with Aid, a charity that was set up in 1993 and is still going strong today. Jagtar has also helped to develop and establish a number of minority support groups in the fire service and is now supporting the Asian members of the fire service to set up a new national group and also the BME network in the Ambulance Service to be more strategic and effective critical friend.
His other interests include being a season ticket-holder of Birmingham City Football Club and playing cricket for a local cricket team, when time allows.
Jagtar is married to Gurjit and has a son Deneal, and a daughter Rumandip.