Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services – in the Senedd at 2:57 pm on 3 October 2018.
I absolutely agree with that. We have for some time funded three fire and rescue authorities in Wales to provide home safety checks completely free to householders. These checks will cover all aspects of fire safety, as well as other hazards such as falls, and I understand that there are something like 60,000 such checks taking place each year, and that focuses on the greatest risk of fire in the home. But the wider point made by the Member for Monmouthshire I think is well made. We have seen a decrease in the incidence of domestic fires, and that means that we do now need to ensure that we can continue to work to inform the population of ways in which they can ensure that their risk is reduced still further. The role of firefighters and the fire authorities in doing so I think remains quite central to that, and we are pursuing conversations with the firefighters and with the fire authorities about how we can do that, including looking at the changing role of firefighters for the future.