Parliament
206 mentions of the inquiry in Parliament since June 2017: debates, written questions and statements, oral questions and early day motions, from Hansard.
Fire and Rescue Services: Standards
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of establishing a national fire and rescue service statutory advisory body to oversee national standards on (a) fire cover, (b) training, (c) equalities and (d) health and safety.
The government has accepted, in principle, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s recommendation to establish a national college of fire and rescue. The Inquiry report suggested a range of potential functions for a college to fulfil, including the development of policies and procedures to ensure both the effectiveness of fire and rescue services and the safety of firefighters and the public.
The government response to the Inquiry’s report notes that a necessary first step in the process will be to consult on the functions a college should have, what these functions should look like and how the college could best be structured and delivered. We expect to launch this consultation in the coming months.
Any future college function relating to national standards would build on the work already undertaken by the Fire Standards Board (FSB), which currently develops and maintains a suite of professional standards for fire and rescue services in England. The 19 standards currently published by the FSB cover a range of topics relating to operational management, leadership and ethics.
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