Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will undertake a review of (a) current levels of on-call firefighters and (b) the challenges faced by fire and rescue services to recruit on-call firefighters.

Fire and Rescue Authorities are responsible for resourcing their services.

To support the future of the on-call system, the Government funded the National Fire Chiefs Council to undertake detailed research into the sustainability of the retained duty system. This work- the National On-Call Research Study was published in November 2025 and has been shared with Fire and Rescue Authorities to inform future planning, improvement activity, and local workforce strategies.