Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2014 from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Official Report, column 1167, what progress he has made on ensuring that if a firefighter fails a fitness test through no fault of their own and they do not qualify for ill health retirement, they will get a redeployed role or an unreduced pension.

The amendment of the Fire and Rescue National Framework for England, which places firefighter fitness principles on a statutory basis, came into force on 12 January 2015. The National Framework sets out that fire and rescue authorities must not only have fitness policies in place, but policies to support those who become unfit, including fully exploring opportunities for reasonable adjustments and redeployment. The National Framework also records my decision to set in train an independent review of these principles and their operation in three years time, and in the light of that review, to take such additional action as might be required to ensure the commitments made to Parliament are secured. No firefighter will see any change to their expected Normal Pension Age until 2022.