Building safety and fire now with single Secretary of State at MHCLG

"I am making this statement to bring to the House’s attention the following machinery of government change."

"On 4 September 2024 I announced that the Government would respond in full to the Grenfell phase 2 inquiry report within six months. In response to one of the report’s recommendations, I am confirming today that responsibility for fire will move from the Home Office to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. This change will bring responsibility for building safety and fire under a single Secretary of State, providing for a more coherent approach to keeping people safe from fire in their homes. The Home Office will retain management of the airwave service contract on behalf of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and will remain responsible for the emergency services mobile communications programme and His Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary and fire and rescue services."

"This change will be effective from 1 April 2025. The Government will respond to the full report in due course."

(Prime Minister, Keir Starmer - Machinery of Government, Volume 762: debated on Thursday 13 February 2025)

Previously, fire and rescue policy was located within the remit of the Home Office, with Minister of State Dame Diana Johnson responsible for policing as well as fire. Building safety, which includes responses to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommendations, is within the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the MHCLG. The Minister Alex Norris, who was responsible for for local growth and democracy, replaced Rushanara Ali as building safety minister (and local growth) and indication is he will be appointed to take responsibility for both building safety and fire when the transfer comes into effect in April.

One of the many issues highlighted by the final report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry was the fragmented regulatory system which it said was also mirrored in the numerous government bodies responsible for building safety and fire. The inquiry stated (Chapter 113: Recommendations. The regulatory arrangements)

"We think that over the course of time the arrangements under which the construction industry was regulated had become too complex and fragmented. At the time of the fire the Department for Communities and Local Government (now the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) was responsible for the Building Regulations and the statutory guidance, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (now the Department for Business and Trade) was responsible for regulating products and the Home Office was responsible for the fire and rescue services."

"Building control was partly in the hands of local authorities and partly in the hands of approved inspectors operating as commercial organisations, enforcement of the law relating to the sale of construction products was carried out by Trading Standards and commercial organisations provided testing and certification services to manufacturers of products. UKAS accredited organisations operating as conformity assessment bodies. In our view, this degree of fragmentation was a recipe for inefficiency and an obstacle to effective regulation."

Lead Sir Martin Moore-Bick in the report specifically criticised the fragmentation of responsibility for fire safety stating:

"The fragmentation of responsibility for regulating the construction industry is currently mirrored in the range of government departments responsible for matters affecting fire safety. If a single body were responsible for all aspects of regulating matters affecting fire safety in the construction industry, that body should report to a single Secretary of State answerable to Parliament for all aspects of fire safety. That should improve the quality of government by providing an administrative environment in which information can be shared more quickly and more effectively between teams responsible for different aspects of the work and facilitate communication between the regulator and the department. It should also ensure that greater emphasis is placed on ensuring the safety of the built environment and that policy is developed in an holistic and coherent way. We therefore recommend that the government bring responsibility for the functions relating to fire safety currently exercised by MHCLG, the Home Office and the Department for Business and Trade into one department under a single Secretary of State." (Chapter 113: Recommendations. Government)

See also Grenfell Phase 2 final report for construction at a glance,

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