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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of older people involved in house fires with an electrical source of ignition in England and Wales in the last five years for which figures are available<i>.</i>

The Department has policy responsibility for England only.

The following table shows the number of casualties aged 65 years old and over who were involved in dwelling fires attended by fire and rescue services in England, where there was reported to have been an electrical power source involved in ignition of the fire. There was incomplete data for 2009/10 so this has not been included:

Casualties include fatalities, hospital admissions, and cases where first aid was administered or precautionary checks recommended. The ages of people involved are only reported when they are casualties, and so we do not hold information on the total number of fires involving older people.

An electrical source of ignition has been interpreted as where the power source involved in the fire was reported as being electricity, although these figures will include incidents where the cause of the fire was not necessarily a direct result of the electrical source – for example, including careless handling, placing articles too close to appliances, and cooking.

Data are as reported on the Incident Recording System (IRS) by fire and rescue authorities. 2009/10 was the first year of the IRS and totals are slightly underreported.