Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 5 July (HL 50), what assessement they have made of the application and enforcement of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in relations to houses or flats provided as short–term accommodation to paying guests through platforms such as Airbnb; whether they have any plans to review or update the Order; and, if so, what is their planned timescale for review.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
It is the responsibility of each fire and rescue authority to manage its prevention, protection and operational resources to address effectively risks within their communities. This includes determining which premises to audit to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Fire Safety Order. When carrying out an audit, including for short-term accommodation let through Airbnb or similar platforms, it is for the individual fire and rescue authority to determine how they assess whether the fire risk assessment carried out by the responsible person and the fire precautions in place are adequate and appropriate for a particular premises. No two premises are the same. What may represent a proportionate approach to improved fire safety management in one building, will not necessarily apply in another.
The level of competency required for individual premises will vary according to their nature and complexity.
The Government issued guidance to assist enforcing authorities in their enforcement responsibilities under the Fire Safety Order, which is available here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulatory-reform-fire-safety-order-2005-guidance-note-enforcement. In addition, the Chief Fire Officers Association, now the National Fire Chiefs Council, produced a standardised audit form to ensure consistency of audits.
The person responsible for complying with the Fire Safety Order (usually the owner, employer, landlord or managing agent) may decide that they are competent to carry out the risk assessment themselves or they may choose to appoint a competent person to undertake the risk assessment on their behalf. A decision on this may be made in conjunction with their insurers.
The requirements for a competent person are set out in the Fire Safety Order. A person is to be regarded as competent for the purposes of making a fire risk assessment if they have sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to enable them properly to assist in undertaking the preventative and protective measures. To help those responsible for ensuring that the risk from fire in their premises has been accurately assessed, the fire sector has produced guidance on how to choose a competent fire risk assessor. This is available on www.cfoa.org.uk/19532.
In addition, fire safety risk assessment guidance produced by the Government and by the Local Government Association also provides advice and guidance to those responsible for fire safety compliance to help them to accurately assess the risks from fire and implement adequate and appropriate fire safety measures. This is available here: https://www.gov.uk/workplace-fire-safety-your-responsibilities/fire-risk-assessments.
The Government will consider the ongoing suitability of the Fire Safety Order as part of the wider work underway following the horrific fire at Grenfell Tower.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 5 July (HL 50), what criteria fire and rescue authorities use to determine whether fire safety precautions are "adequate" and "appropriate" for the management of fire hazards in houses or flats offering accomodation to paying guests, such as through Airbnb.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
It is the responsibility of each fire and rescue authority to manage its prevention, protection and operational resources to address effectively risks within their communities. This includes determining which premises to audit to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Fire Safety Order. When carrying out an audit, including for short-term accommodation let through Airbnb or similar platforms, it is for the individual fire and rescue authority to determine how they assess whether the fire risk assessment carried out by the responsible person and the fire precautions in place are adequate and appropriate for a particular premises. No two premises are the same. What may represent a proportionate approach to improved fire safety management in one building, will not necessarily apply in another.
The level of competency required for individual premises will vary according to their nature and complexity.
The Government issued guidance to assist enforcing authorities in their enforcement responsibilities under the Fire Safety Order, which is available here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulatory-reform-fire-safety-order-2005-guidance-note-enforcement. In addition, the Chief Fire Officers Association, now the National Fire Chiefs Council, produced a standardised audit form to ensure consistency of audits.
The person responsible for complying with the Fire Safety Order (usually the owner, employer, landlord or managing agent) may decide that they are competent to carry out the risk assessment themselves or they may choose to appoint a competent person to undertake the risk assessment on their behalf. A decision on this may be made in conjunction with their insurers.
The requirements for a competent person are set out in the Fire Safety Order. A person is to be regarded as competent for the purposes of making a fire risk assessment if they have sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to enable them properly to assist in undertaking the preventative and protective measures. To help those responsible for ensuring that the risk from fire in their premises has been accurately assessed, the fire sector has produced guidance on how to choose a competent fire risk assessor. This is available on www.cfoa.org.uk/19532.
In addition, fire safety risk assessment guidance produced by the Government and by the Local Government Association also provides advice and guidance to those responsible for fire safety compliance to help them to accurately assess the risks from fire and implement adequate and appropriate fire safety measures. This is available here: https://www.gov.uk/workplace-fire-safety-your-responsibilities/fire-risk-assessments.
The Government will consider the ongoing suitability of the Fire Safety Order as part of the wider work underway following the horrific fire at Grenfell Tower.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 5 July (HL 50), how many inspections of houses or flats offering short–term accommodation to paying guests were carried out by each fire and rescue authority in each year since 2010; and how many of those inspections were found to be (1) satisfactory and (2) unsatisfactory.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office does not centrally collect information on the number of inspections of houses or flats offering short-term accommodation to paying guests carried out by each fire and rescue authority. Information on the number of inspections of houses or flats offering short-term accommodation to paying guests is the responsibility of individual FRSs.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to review fire safety regulations applied to short-term lettings through online accommodation platforms such as Airbnb; and what processes are in place to ensure compliance.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to houses or flats where the premises are not occupied as a private dwelling – this would include properties which offer holiday or short term accommodation to paying guests. In the case of Airbnb and other similar web-based accommodation providers, we consider the Order would apply during the period where paying guests were staying. That is because, during this period, the property would no longer be occupied as a single private dwelling.
Under the Order, the responsible person (usually the owner or building manager) is required to undertake a fire risk assessment and put in place fire precautions that are adequate and appropriate to manage the risk that lives could be lost in a fire.
Fire and rescue authorities are the enforcing authorities for the Fire Safety Order in such accommodation. They are required to have a risk based inspection programme and management strategy in place to ensure compliance with the Fire Safety Order within their area.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
Her Majesty's Government what fire safety regulations apply to short-term lettings made through online accommodation platforms such as Airbnb; and what processes are in place to ensure compliance.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to houses or flats where the premises are not occupied as a private dwelling – this would include properties which offer holiday or short term accommodation to paying guests. In the case of Airbnb and other similar web-based accommodation providers, we consider the Order would apply during the period where paying guests were staying. That is because, during this period, the property would no longer be occupied as a single private dwelling.
Under the Order, the responsible person (usually the owner or building manager) is required to undertake a fire risk assessment and put in place fire precautions that are adequate and appropriate to manage the risk that lives could be lost in a fire.
Fire and rescue authorities are the enforcing authorities for the Fire Safety Order in such accommodation. They are required to have a risk based inspection programme and management strategy in place to ensure compliance with the Fire Safety Order within their area.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to ensure that businesses and individuals are being adequately protected from the financial impact of cybercrime.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Through the National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP), we invested over £90 million during the last Parliament to bolster the law enforcement response. As the Chancellor announced in November, this Government has committed to spending £1.9 billion on cyber security over the next five years, including activity to help businesses and individuals protect themselves from cyber crime. The Government is also creating the National Cyber Security Centre, which will open in October 2016, to simplify the current cyber security landscape. This year, we will also publish a second five-year National Cyber Security Strategy which will set out our approach to how we will continue to defend the UK from cyber crime.
Through the NCSP we are funding the Cyber Streetwise campaign (www.cyberstreetwise.com), which encourages the public and Small and Medium Enterprises to adopt more secure online behaviour. The latest phase of the campaign, launched in September 2015, is focussed on addressing the estimated 80% of cyber crime that could be prevented through the adoption of three simple online behaviours: use three random words to create a strong password; install security software on all devices; and always download the latest software and app updates as soon as they appear.
We are also clear that banks have a central role in the prevention of fraud and cyber crime. The Home Secretary announced our new Joint Fraud Taskforce on 10 February. The Taskforce is a collaboration of the banks, law enforcement and government, at the most senior levels. Its aim is to protect the public from financial fraud, including cyber-enabled fraud, to reduce the impact of fraud on victims and increase the disruption and prosecution of fraudsters.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of cybercrime attacks and their impact on the UK economy.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The most recently published crime statistics for England and Wales show that in the year ending December 2015 of the 617,618 fraud offences reported to the National Fraud Investigation Bureau, 14,347 (2.3%) were recorded under the Computer Misuse Act (i.e. cyber-dependent offences). This figure represented a 6% decrease compared to the year ending December 2014.
While overall crime has fallen by more than a quarter since 2010, it is also changing. An accurate national picture is critical to informing our response to cyber crime. That is why the Office for National Statistics have now published, for the first time, initial experimental estimates of the numbers of cyber crimes committed.
Based on a preliminary field trial, ONS estimate 5.1m fraud incidents and 2.5m incidents of computer misuse crime per year. Following the success of this trial, new questions relating to fraud and cybercrime were introduced onto half the survey sample from October 2015 and will be reported on a quarterly basis from later this year.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to support research and development to provide continually up-to-date defence against cybercrime.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Home Office continues to work closely with police forces to ensure that we are best placed to tackle the threat posed by cyber crime.
Through the National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP), we invested over £90 million during the last Parliament to bolster the law enforcement response.
As the Chancellor announced in November, this Government has committed to spending £1.9 billion on cyber security over the next five years, including for tackling cyber crime.
The Home Office is also supporting the work led by Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh, the National Policing Lead for Digital Investigation and Intelligence (DII), to build capabilities to combat the full range of digital crime types. In addition we are providing funding through the Police Transformation Fund to support police led programmes to provide a step-change in digital capability.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in working with Chief Police Officers to tackle cybercrime.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Home Office continues to work closely with police forces to ensure that we are best placed to tackle the threat posed by cyber crime.
Through the National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP), we invested over £90 million during the last Parliament to bolster the law enforcement response.
As the Chancellor announced in November, this Government has committed to spending £1.9 billion on cyber security over the next five years, including for tackling cyber crime.
The Home Office is also supporting the work led by Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh, the National Policing Lead for Digital Investigation and Intelligence (DII), to build capabilities to combat the full range of digital crime types. In addition we are providing funding through the Police Transformation Fund to support police led programmes to provide a step-change in digital capability.