Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve fire safety in healthcare settings.

The National Health Service has unique fire safety issues given the nature of its services and the patients it treats. These issues and related risks are analysed with risk reduction measures such as specific technical guidance updates and technical bulletins based on this data being developed and published where appropriate. Professional networking ensures that best practice is shared with the NHS via professional organisations such as National Fire Chiefs Council, the National Association of Healthcare Fire Officers, and the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management.

This specific fire safety guidance is provided to the NHS in the Health Technical Memorandum 05 generally referred to as Firecode. This guidance is being revised to fully reflect recent changes in legislation, technology, and policy, and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/fire-safety-in-the-nhs-health-technical-memorandum-05-03/