Fire and rescue service response to COVID-19

On 4 August 2020, the Home Secretary commissioned us to examine how fire and rescue services responded to the pandemic.

We answered these questions:

  • What is working well and what is being learnt?
  • How the fire sector is responding to the COVID-19 crisis?
  • How fire services are dealing with the problems they face?
  • What changes are likely because of COVID-19?

We focused on these five issues:

  • What services are doing during the pandemic and what impact the tripartite agreement between the National Fire Chiefs Council, National Employers and Fire Brigades Union had.
  • How services looked after their staff, in particular their minority ethnic and vulnerable staff.
  • How services fulfilled their statutory functions.
  • What worked well including any best practice.
  • How did services work with others, including other blue light services.

We published our findings in January 2021: Responding to the pandemic: The fire and rescue service’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

We also inspected the policing response to COVID-19.