Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Incident Reporting System for fires caused by electrical goods in domestic homes includes fires caused by (a) mobile phone chargers and (b) e-cigarettes.

The Home Office regularly considers how best to review both the IRS functionality and data collection, to ensure they continue to meet the needs of FRSs and other data users, particularly in light of the Fire Reform Agenda.

Fires related to mobile phone chargers are currently captured under the category ‘Battery Charger’ and although there is not a specific category for e-cigarettes, FRSs record fires related to these under the ‘other’ category.

Home Office officials have regular discussions with fire and rescue services about the data collected through the Incident Recording System and collect feedback about the IRS to feed into future reviews.