Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of granting powers to Police and Crime Commissioners to take over the governance of local fire and rescue services on fire (a) safety and (b) response times in (i) Essex, (ii) Northamptonshire, (iii) North Yorkshire and (iv) Staffordshire.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
Part 1 of the PCC Review explored ways in which we can strengthen fire governance and accountability. The findings signalled strong support for a directly elected individual taking on fire functions to help simplify and strengthen the governance of fire and rescue services across England. This position was reaffirmed in the Fire Reform White Paper, in which we set out our ambition to transfer fire governance to a single elected individual wherever possible. In the Government response to the White Paper, published in September 2023, we set out our intention to proactively encourage and support voluntary governance transfers to PCCs or Mayors wherever possible.
The Home Office collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs), with this including fire incident and response time data for Essex, Northamptonshire, North Yorkshire and Staffordshire FRSs. This data is published in a variety of published data tables, available here: Fire statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to paragraph 45 of the Government response to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee report on Cladding: Progress of Remediation, CP 281, published on 3 September 2020, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of taking into direct ownership the freehold of a building for which access to (a) assess and (b) provide remediation is being prevented.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Building owners are responsible for remediating unsafe buildings and the government has made extensive funding available for them to do so. It is important that building owners fulfil their building safety responsibilities and where they do not that they are held to account. Where building owners are stalling, they can expect to be subject to enforcement action by a local authority, fire and rescue service or the Building Safety Regulator; we released a joint statement with key building safety bodies committing to this last year. Regulators have an extensive set of powers which allow them to compel building owners to assess and remediate their buildings.
The Fire Safety Act 2021 and Building Safety Act 2022 strengthen enforcement tools for regulators, including introducing remediation orders which are issued by the First-tier Tribunal. These boost regulators’ existing powers under the Housing Act 2004 and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Building owners who fail to comply with enforcement action can be subject to criminal penalties. The government has provided over £8 million in funding to local authorities to expand their enforcement teams.
We also fund the Joint Inspection Team (JIT), a multidisciplinary team of experts which supports local authorities with inspections and enforcement; the JIT currently supports over a third of all local authority high-rise building safety inspections in England.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department is taking steps to help protect firefighters from harmful fire contaminants.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The health and safety of firefighters is of paramount importance and emerging research indicating that they may be exposed to contaminants is concerning. The Home Office are commissioning a literature review of such research that will involve a comprehensive review of published literature on the risk contaminants pose to firefighters along with related decontamination protocols.
Fire and rescue authorities, as the employers, must take seriously their responsibility for the health and wellbeing of firefighters, they should be mindful of the emerging research in this area and take appropriate action to protect their workforce – including appropriate decontamination processes for equipment.
We are working closely with the National Fire Chiefs Council and partners across government to understand the potential risk and whether further action is needed.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help ensure the protective equipment supplied to fire-fighters is up to date.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Fire and Rescue Authorities are responsible for the health and safety of their employees.
It is for individual fire and rescue authorities, as employers with responsibility for health and wellbeing, to ensure that firefighters receive the appropriate equipment and training they need to safely respond to the wide range of incidents which they attend, based on their assessment of local risk. Research being commissioned on carcinogens.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent fires caused by (a) e-bikes, (b) conversion kits and (c) e-scooters.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office is promoting fire safety messages, through its Fire Kills campaign, to educate consumers on safe charging and storage of e-bikes and e-scooters in the home and to recommend that only professionals carry out conversions.
The advice, also published on FireEngland.uk, supports that issued by London Fire Brigade’s #ChargeSafe campaign. The Home Office has made these materials available to fire and rescue services to use in their local fire prevention activity.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to help protect firefighters from carcinogens.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The health and safety of firefighters is of paramount importance.
Fire and Rescue Authorities are responsible for the health and safety of firefighters and they should be mindful of emerging research.
I have commissioned a literature review of published studies to understand their conclusions and determine next steps and I am engaging with the Department for Health and Social Care to explore these issues.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which Government body is responsible for fire safety in offshore wind farms.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The law requires businesses operating renewable energy developments to have arrangements for evacuation, escape, recovery and rescue to prevent any risk of harm to persons working at those developments, including risks from fire. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) are the regulatory authorities for those legal requirements at offshore renewable energy developments.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on support for (a) current and (b) former firefighters diagnosed with cancer as a result of their work.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The health and safety of firefighters is of paramount importance and emerging research indicating that firefighters are being exposed to an increased risk of cancer is concerning.
Fire and Rescue Authorities are responsible for the health and safety of firefighters and they should be mindful of this emerging research.
I have commissioned a literature review of published studies to understand their conclusions and determine next steps and I am engaging with the Department for Health and Social Care to explore these issues.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to support (a) firefighters and (b) retired firefighters diagnosed with cancer as a result of their work.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The health and safety of firefighters is of paramount importance and emerging research indicating that firefighters are being exposed to an increased risk of cancer is concerning.
Fire and Rescue Authorities are responsible for the health and safety of firefighters and they should be mindful of this emerging research.
I have commissioned a literature review of published studies to understand their conclusions and determine next steps and I am engaging with the Department for Health and Social Care to explore these issues.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to provide compensation for firefighters diagnosed with cancer as a result of their occupation.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The health and safety of firefighters is of paramount importance and emerging research indicating that firefighters are being exposed to an increased risk of cancer is concerning.
Fire and Rescue Authorities are responsible for the health and safety of firefighters and they should be mindful of this emerging research.
I have commissioned a literature review of published studies to understand their conclusions and determine next steps and I am engaging with the Department for Health and Social Care to explore these issues.