Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to improve the emergency services' efficiency for encouraging cooperation with air ambulances, civil air patrols and other charity organisations.

Collaboration presents a real opportunity for emergency services to increase efficiency and effectiveness and improve the service delivered to the public.

The Policing and Crime Act 2017 introduces a new statutory duty on police, fire and rescue and emergency ambulance services to keep collaborative opportunities under review, and to enter these where it is in the interests of their efficiency or effectiveness. This sets a clear expectation that collaboration opportunities should be fully exploited.

This duty does not prevent emergency services working closely with other law enforcement partners, local public sector or charitable organisations. The decision of whether to enter into such arrangements, such as with air support, will be an operational decision for the emergency services and their partners.