Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to help protect firefighters from cancer caused by contaminants in fires.

The health and safety of firefighters is of great importance. It is for individual fire and rescue authorities, as employers with responsibility for health and wellbeing, to ensure that firefighters receive the appropriate equipment and training they need to safely respond to the wide range of incidents which they attend.

Nationally, the “Fire and Rescue National Framework” directs that all Fire and Rescue Authorities should have a people strategy which covers “health and safety, wellbeing, disabilities, and support (including mental health and physical support)”.

The Home Office will review the recently published studies to fully understand their methodology.