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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the resilience of fire and rescue services during periods in which multiple major incidents occur simultaneously.

This Government is committed to ensuring that fire and rescue services can draw on national capabilities, enabling them to respond effectively to large-scale or critical incidents.

Government funds specialist national resilience capabilities, ensuring national assets - such as urban search and rescue; high volume pumps; and mass decontamination – are strategically located across the country for times of need.

My department funds the national resilience lead authority in Merseyside to deliver a range of services, including capability assurance, to ensure National Resilience Capabilities operate effectively across the country.

The National Coordination and Advisory Framework (NCAF) provides robust and flexible arrangements for mutual aid and the mobilisation of specialist and conventional resources from across England where an incident, or combination of concurrent incidents, places demands beyond the capabilities or capacity of an individual service.