Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of consulting with fire safety stakeholders on the creation of UK-wide response standards in fire and rescue services.

The Government supports the continuous improvement of fire and rescue services and established a sector led Fire Standards Board that develops professional standards for the sector. The suite of professional standards created by the Fire Standards Board includes strategic standards on operational preparedness and operational competence.

The Fire Standards Board consult widely on each of their standards prior to publication.

Decisions on how their resources, including staff, are best deployed to meet their core functions including crewing and meeting response times, is a matter for each fire and rescue authority, based on risks identified within local Community Risk Management Plans.