The Home Office has published its response to last year’s consultation on minimum service levels in fire and rescue services in England, setting the proportion of fire engines and other vehicles that should be made available during a strike at 73%.
The rules, stipulated in the draft Strikes (Minimum Service Levels: Fire and Rescue Services) Regulations 2024, will come into force once a trade union has informed a fire and rescue service of its intention to strike and that employer takes action. The regulations are expected to be approved by Parliament soon.
Under the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023, employers in specified public services, including fire, rail, health and education, can issue “work notices” to employees who are required to work to maintain a minimum level of service.
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Crime, policing and fire minister Chris Philp said: “Fire and rescue services play a critical role in society and protect the public in emergencies, and we must ensure this is maintained during periods of industrial action.
“While it is right that workers have the ability to strike, this must not come at the cost of public safety. The new minimum service level for fire and rescue will help save lives.”
The first strikes where minimum service level rules were available for employers took place in January 2024, but none of the 16 train operating companies affected chose to impose MSLs.
When one employer – LNER – signalled that it might use MSLs, the train drivers’ union Aslef announced five further days of strike action, in addition to the original 24-hour walkout. When LNER then informed Aslef that it would not impose MSLs, the extra five-day strike was cancelled.
What are minimum service levels for fire and rescue?
The regulations broadly set out that fire and rescue services answer all emergency calls on strike days and provide a response to emergency incidents “as if it were a non-strike day”. This mirrors the approach taken in the regulations for minimum service levels for ambulance services.
For control room staff, the government has opted for an approach that will see the functions of a control room carried out as if it were a non-strike day. It will be up to individual fire and rescue services to determine how best to ensure these services continue to function, including other potential sources of cover, and how many employees will need to be included on work notices to help fulfil that.
In its consultation response, the government has decided to set a national percentage based on appliances, noting that the regulations will apply to services provided by fire and rescue authorities and contractors in England.
It said that to protect the public on strike days and maintain emergency responses as best as possible, while allowing the ability to strike for some, it decided to set the minimum service level at 73% of appliances that would normally be available on non-strike days.
The 73% figure is based on modelling which calculates the proportion of days over the past five years that each fire and rescue service had more pumping appliances simultaneously mobilised than a minimum service level would ensure were available.
National resilience capabilities that cover major incidents, such as a terror attack or a large-scale building collapse, that could overwhelm a single fire and rescue service, should be deployed “as if the strike were not taking place that day”. These do not form part of the 73% figure for appliances required for firefighting, said the Home Office.
FBU letter to fire service employers
On 12 March 2024, the Fire Brigades Union sent to a letter to all fire service employers in England warning that implementing work notices would “irreparably damage” industrial relations and threaten public safety.
Fire service employers differ depending on the region, and include fire authorities; police, fire and crime commissioners; mayors; and devolved administrations. The governments of Scotland and Wales have already said that they will not issue work notices and/or that they have no intention of introducing their own regulations to make the legislation operative.
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “The government’s minimum service levels amount to a draconian attempt to ban firefighters and control staff from taking strike action. This is an attack on the fundamental democratic rights of fire service employees.
“Each fire service employer will have the power to decide whether to threaten their workforce with the sack during a period of strike action. The FBU calls on all employers to make it clear that they will refuse to issue work notices, rendering the new laws inoperable in their local fire and rescue service.
“They should agree not to dismiss or take any disciplinary action against any employee for taking part in strike action.”
This page was originally published on 8 February 2024 and updated on 12 March after the Fire Brigades Union wrote to fire service employers across England.
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