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 trends in the number of church fires; and whether incidents of church fires have increased in the last five years.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) collects information on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) in England.

The table below shows the number of fires attended by Fire and Rescue Services in England in buildings recorded as churches, chapels or cathedrals in each of the last five financial years.

The number of fires attended in churches, chapels and cathedrals has fluctuated over the last five years. While there were 80 such fires in in 2025/26, compared with 72 in 2021/22, the highest number of incidents during this period was recorded in 2022/23, when Fire and Rescue Services attended 94 fires in churches, chapels and cathedrals.

The figures are derived from the Department's Incident Level Datasets (ILDs), which are published as part of the Fire Statistics collection. Specifically, the analysis is based on the Other Building Fires dataset and identifies incidents where the buildingtype variable is recorded as "Church / Chapel / Cathedral".

Further information on fire incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services is available at:

Fire statistics collection

Fire statistics data tables

Fire statistics incident level datasets