Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of placing Local Resilience Forums on a statutory footing.

The Government considered the status of Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) as part of the Post Implementation Review of the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) published in 2022.

Evidence collected through a public consultation, dedicated engagement with stakeholders and lessons from recent emergencies did not demonstrate a clear need for making LRFs a legal entity.

Legal status could conflict with the duties placed on Categorised responders (such as emergency services, local authorities and utilities) and undermine the existing arrangement set out in the Act.

The review recognised the need to strengthen Local Resilience Forums in England and committed in the UK Government Resilience Framework to working across three key pillars of reform - Leadership, Accountability, and Integration of resilience into the UK’s levelling up mission.