Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reform the fire service.

The Government - in partnership with the fire sector - is delivering a radical and ambitious programme of reform to make the fire and rescue service more accountable, efficient and professional than ever before. This includes: creating a new independent inspectorate; enabling police and crime commissioners to take on local fire governance; supporting commercial transformation; driving transparency; forming a professional standards body and reforming the workforce to make it more flexible, skilled and diverse.