Recommendation P2-35: Consider higher power radios for breathing apparatus

Since the May 2026 report, 2 more workshops have been delivered. Demand for the workshops is slowing down, which was expected at this point in time. In the past 18 months, 48 Operational Guidance Surgeries (workshops) have been delivered to services; 20 of these were specifically related to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 recommendations but all of them would have addressed the recommendations and outcomes with NFCC supporting the delivery of progress within services. We are still expecting that all services requiring this support will have received it by the end of December 2026.

The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC)

From April 2025, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) developed an action and delivery plan to respond to the recommendations, using a survey of fire and rescue services to understand current practice and identify where further support may be needed. The plan was then shared with key stakeholders, including MHCLG.

As work progressed, the NFCC focused on improving understanding of radio provision and performance in operational settings. This included preparing materials for workshops with services, reviewing past learning cases and relevant research, and bringing this together in a report on radio issues. The NFCC also committed to gathering further case studies from services using higher‑powered digital radios to better understand their impact.

By December 2025, the NFCC had compiled and shared the report with the National Operational Learning User Group. It was agreed that the learning cases did not identify any conclusive position on the issues with digital radios. As more learning submissions are received, they will be reviewed and added to the report.

The NFCC Implementation team began delivering assurance workshops to services, with a programme in place to complete this work across all fire and rescue services by Autumn 2026. Workshops have been delivered to 14 fire and rescue services as of January 2026.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB)

As published in our September 2025 progress report, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) had introduced new dual‑function radio handsets that operate in both analogue and digital modes. These handsets are intrinsically safe, have increased power, and can connect directly to breathing apparatus facemasks, improving communications in line with Phase 1 recommendations. The rollout was supported by a mix of online and face‑to‑face training, covering radio use, channels and etiquette. Over 80% of staff had completed new e‑learning on managing communications at incidents, with work underway to raise completion to 90% by the end of the year.

In December we published the rollout of the new radios was complete and training had been fully delivered. All four e‑learning modules had achieved completion rates above 90%, alongside ongoing face‑to‑face training. LFB had completed its work on these recommendations, while the NFCC will continue to report on progress at a national level.

The LFB Business Assurance team will be conducting a review of the GTI 2 improvement activity, commencing in early 2026, and will be completed and a report submitted by the end of Q4 2025/26.

LFB is also engaging with the broader NFCC GTI 2 assurance workshop programme, and the LFB workshop is scheduled to take place in February 2026. The workshop will provide an insight into how other fire and rescue services are approaching the GTI 2 recommendations and provide assurance that the LFB approach is effective and sustainable.