Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 21 February 2025 to Question 29614 on Fire and Rescue Services: Police, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support (a) joint working between emergency services, (b) tri-service working between the three emergency services and (c) joint working between the police and fire service.

The Government is committed to seeing more and better collaboration between emergency services to increase efficiency and public safety outcomes. The Policing and Crime Act 2017 sets out a statutory duty for ambulance trusts, fire and rescue bodies and police bodies in England to keep collaboration opportunities under review and, where it is in the interests of their efficiency or effectiveness, to put those collaboration opportunities into practice. It is for local fire and rescue services, working with emergency services counterparts, to decide what collaborative activities will be best to take forward.

The HMICFRS framework considers collaboration as part of its inspections, and we continue to work with the sector to learn more about good examples that can be shared.