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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government of 15 December 2014, Official Report, columns 1148-56, if the Minister will meet the Fire Brigades Union and fire authority employers, and their respective legal representatives, to discuss how commitments that she gave in that debate on fire service pensions will be implemented in practice; and if he will make a statement.

My Department will be working with representative bodies and the employers in the fitness working group facilitated by the Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser to provide good practice on the application of the firefighter fitness principles now incorporated into the Fire and Rescue National Framework for England. We have also agreed to set in train an independent review of the operation of these principles in three years time, and in the light of that review, to take such additional action as might be required to ensure the commitments made to Parliament are secured.