Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the fire service response times of each fire authority in England are recorded from the same point after receiving an incident call.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Home Office published statistics are recorded from the same point.
Each time a fire and rescue service (FRS) attends an incident in England, details of that incident are uploaded to the Home Office’s Incident Recording System (IRS) by the FRS and this is used as the source for all the statistics in the response times publication https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/response-times-to-fires-attended-by-fire-and-rescue-services-england-april-2016-to-march-2017
The response time is defined as the duration from time of call to time of arrival of the first vehicle at the scene of the incident and is standard for all FRSs. FRSs set their own targets for local response times which may not include the call time, however this should not affect records in the IRS and hence the statistics published by the Home Office.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the benefits of standardising the method for recording fire service response times in England.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Each time a fire and rescue service (FRS) attends an incident in England, details of that incident are uploaded to the Home Office’s Incident Recording System (IRS) by the FRS and this is used as the source for all the statistics in the response times publication https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/response-times-to-fires-attended-by-fire-and-rescue-services-england-april-2016-to-march-2017
The response time is defined as the duration from time of call to time of arrival of the first vehicle at the scene of the incident and is standard for all FRSs. FRSs set their own targets for local response times which may not include the call time, however this should not affect records in the IRS.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if the Government will provide additional funding to Fire Authorities for firefighter mental health services.
Answered by Nick Hurd
It is the responsibility of each fire and rescue authority in England to ensure that they have appropriate support and wellbeing provisions in place which reflect the specific needs of their workforce.
However, since 2014, the Government has provided £7m to pay for mental health support through Mind’s Blue Light Programme to ensure our emergency services workers, including fire service employees, have the counselling and emotional support they require.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department provides financial support to people on low incomes to apply for indefinite leave to remain.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Home Office does not provide direct financial support for people applying for indefinite leave to remain. However, no fee is payable for Indefinite Leave to Remain children in Local Authority care and children are also eligible for fee waivers in a set of specified Human Rights cases.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an assessment of the capacity of his Department's workforce to produce a new statutory fire regulatory framework.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Dame Judith Hackitt’s report calls for major reform of the regulatory system and for culture change across the construction and fire safety industries. The government agreed with the broad principles of the report and committed to bring forward legislation.
The Home Office and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government are working with partners to consider the detail of Dame Judith’s recommendations and will set out an implementation plan in the autumn.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the support provided to British witnesses who are interviewed by foreign police forces in the UK.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Foreign law enforcement officers have no powers in the UK and cannot interview witnesses here without the consent of the individual. If the witness does consent, the foreign law enforcement officer is subject to the law of the UK in the same way as any other foreign visitor, so any such interview must be conducted accordingly.
An interview of a witness in the UK is, in the vast majority of cases requested via mutual legal assistance or joint investigation teams, but can be requested through police to police cooperation for voluntary witness interviews – though the latter is an unusual route which is not used very often. How an interview is conducted would be a matter for agreement between the UK police and foreign law enforcement officer but it is a routine requirement that UK police are present when anyone is interviewed by foreign police in the UK.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether it is his Department's policy to assess the (a) economic and (b) social costs of all fires.
Answered by Nick Hurd
In 2011 the Department of Communities and Local Government published the Economic Cost of Fire: estimates for 2008, Fire research report 3/2011, see:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20121105004836/http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/1838338.pdf
The Home Office will review the economic and social costs of fire as and when necessary to assist in the development of policy.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Incident Reporting System in capturing the major causes of fire in domestic properties.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The web-based Incident Recording System (IRS) provides a standard template, supported by detailed guidance on how to complete the form, used by all Fire and Rescue Services in England, Wales and Scotland. It captures a range of detailed information on fires attended by FRSs, including the cause of fire, source of ignition, power of ignition, the item first ignited and the item(s) responsible for the main spread of fire.
It is recognised that changing interests and technologies may not be explicitly reflected in the IRS. The Home Office regularly considers how best to review both the IRS functionality and data collection, to ensure they continue to meet the needs of FRSs and other data users, particularly in light of the Fire Reform Agenda.
Home Office officials have regular discussions with fire and rescue services about the data collected through the IRS and collect feedback about the IRS to feed into future reviews.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria his Department uses to decide on proposals from Police and Crime Commissioners to take over Fire and Rescue Services.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Policing and Crime Act 2017 introduced measures enabling PCCs to submit proposals to the Secretary of State to take on responsibility for the governance of fire and rescue in their area. The Secretary of State can only give effect to such a proposal where it appears to him that the transfer of responsibility would be in the interests of economy, efficiency and effectiveness, or public safety. The Secretary of State cannot give effect to a proposal where he thinks it would have an adverse effect on public safety.
If in response to a consultation a relevant local authority indicates that it does not support the PCC’s proposal, the Secretary of State would be required to obtain, and have regard to, an independent assessment of the proposal and the PCC’s consultation documents.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when accepting Police and Crime Commissioner’s applications to take over the fire service, whether his Department makes an economic assessment of the merits of the merger.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Policing and Crime Act 2017 introduced measures enabling PCCs to submit proposals to the Home Secretary to take on responsibility for the governance of fire and rescue in their area. The Government is clear that this does not entail a takeover of the fire service by police. The important distinction between operational policing and fire-fighting will be maintained.
The Secretary of State can only make an order transferring governance to a PCC if it appears to him that it would be in the interests of economy, efficiency and effectiveness, or public safety, to do so. The Secretary of State cannot approve a proposal where a transfer of governance would have an adverse effect on public safety. Part of this assessment involves consideration of the economic basis of the proposal.