Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 16 February 2026 to Question 111868 on Fire and Rescue Services: Databases, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring fire and rescue services to record whether such fires involve lithium-ion batteries or electric vehicles; and whether his Department plans to make such reporting mandatory under the Fire and Rescue Data Platform Version 2.

As part of the development of Version 2 of the Fire and Rescue Data Platform (FaRDaP), we will be adding new reference data to allow fire and rescue services to record and report on when an incident involves lithium‑ion batteries or electric vehicles. This will include identifying whether the source of ignition was a battery and, where relevant, whether that battery was on charge at the time of the incident. These additions will ensure such information is collected and reported consistently across services.