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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government what progress has been made in updating the national Incident Recording System to capture data on lithium-ion battery fires, including whether the battery involved was an e-bike or e-scooter battery and whether it was on charge at the time of the incident; and when this update will be operational.

There is currently no set date for Fire and Rescue Services to record whether fires involve lithium-ion batteries or electric vehicles. However, development work is ongoing to enable the collection of these data points, with the intention that this capability will be in place by the end of 2026. As part of the development of Version 2 of the Fire and Rescue Data Platform (FaRDaP), we will be adding new reference data to allow fire and rescue services to record and report on when an incident involves lithium‑ion batteries or electric vehicles. This will include identifying whether the source of ignition was a battery and, where relevant, whether that battery was on charge at the time of the incident. These additions will ensure that such information is collected and reported consistently across services. Publication of the data is currently expected by the end of next year.