Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing people over 65 with advice on the prevention of fires in domestic homes.

It is for individual fire and rescue services to determine how best they can use their resources to mitigate the risks associated with fire in their communities. Over 65’s are disproportionately represented in fire fatality statistics; they consistently make up about 50% of those who die in dwelling fires, yet make up less than 18% of the population.

Of the 581,000 visits by fire and rescue services to individuals in their own homes carried out in 2015/16, nearly half (268,000) were made to those aged 65 and over.

These visits are designed to help householders to assess the risk of fire and enable fire and rescue services to provide them with tailored fire prevention advice and, in some cases, with products designed to minimise the risks should a fire break out. These could include smoke alarms, flame retardant bedding, electric deep fat fryers and, in some cases, personal fire suppression systems.