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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to make a new offer to the Fire Brigades Union based on the costings by the Government Actuary's Department.

I have regular meetings with the Fire Brigades Union. The most recent request for a meeting has come from Matt Wrack, the General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, and is dated 20 June. I am content to agree to this request as long as the Union is not in a period of strike action.

Earlier this year I agreed that the Government Actuary's Department could cost alternative pension scheme designs that the Union had proposed. After constructive discussions, I wrote to the General Secretary on 23 April 2014 stating that their proposals were under consideration. The following day, the Union prematurely called a halt to those discussions by announcing strike action. I have since published draft regulations for consultation to implement the Proposed Final Agreement which was published in May 2012. I would encourage the Union to engage in that formal statutory consultation process which can be found at

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-the-regulations-to-introduce-a-new-firefighters-pension-scheme-from-april-2015