Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much and what proportion of each fire authority's financial reserves is (a) earmarked expenditure and (b) unearmarked expenditure.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) publishes reserves data for fire and rescue authorities. This data includes both ‘unallocated financial reserves’ and ‘earmarked financial reserves’ These can be found by following the link below.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions her Department has had with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial strategy on reducing the number of electrical fires in the home caused by faulty white goods.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office has collaborated with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to support and promote the Register My Appliance initiative, run by the Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Electrical Appliances. This is designed to improve product recall rates and ensure a greater number of faulty products can be traced and either repaired or removed from homes.
Home Office officials will continue to work closely with product safety officials, following the creation of the Office of Product Safety and Standards, to explore what else can be done to support their work around faulty white goods.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions her Department has had with the National Fire Chiefs Council on reducing fires in the home with an electrical source of ignition.
Answered by Nick Hurd
As a standing member of the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) Home Safety Committee, Home Office officials routinely discuss electrical safety issues with the NFCC to ensure opportunities to drive down electrical fires and promote electrical safety are utilised.
The Department has facilitated close links between the NFCC, product safety officials at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the sector-led Register My Appliance initiative to encourage fire and rescue services to increase the focus on electrical and product safety within their engagement with members of the public.
The Home Office’s national fire safety campaign, run in partnership with the NFCC, collaborates with Electrical Safety First to run the annual Electrical Fire Safety Week. The Week is used by fire and rescue services and others to promote electrical fire safety messages.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of response times to 999 calls in (a) Lincoln, (b) Lincolnshire and (c) the UK.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The handling of 999 calls is an operational matter for the police. It is for elected Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables to decide how their force’s resources are deployed and how best to manage their communications with the public.
In March 2018, as part of its annual effectiveness reports on all police forces in England and Wales, HMICFRS briefly assesses the police’s response to calls.
The report for Lincolnshire can be found at: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/wp-content/uploads/peel-police-effectiveness-2017-lincolnshire.pdf. (page 6)
The national overview can be found at: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/wp-content/uploads/peel-police-effectiveness-2017-1.pdf (pages 13-14, 48-49)
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the level of debt has been for each fire authority in each of the last eight financial years.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government publish data on local authority debt. This can be found at the following link: