Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps is she taking to increase the number of (a) wholetime and (b) retained firefighters.

The Government is committed to ensuring fire and rescue services have the resources they need to do their important work. Overall, fire and rescue authorities will receive around £2.87 billion in 2024/25. Standalone FRAs will see an increase in core spending power of £95.4m in 2024/25. This is an increase of 5.6 per cent in cash terms compared to 2023/24.

Decisions on how fire and rescue services are run, and how their resources and crewing number, are for the local Chief Fire Officers and their democratically elected fire and rescue authority. They are responsible for ensuring the needs and demands of their local community are met and are able to direct their resources where they are needed most.

All Fire and Rescue Authorities have a statutory duty to produce a Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) in which they set out the key challenges and risks facing their communities and how they intend to meet and reduce them. This is in line with the Fire and Rescue National Framework, which is the document by which the Home Office sets strategic requirements for the fire and rescue service.