Strikes Act: minimum services level regulations passed for fire and rescue service
The Government has passed regulations setting minimum service levels in English fire and rescue services. The regulations were made and came into force on 21 March 2024.
Minimum Service Levels
The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 allows the Government to set minimum service levels in 'relevant services' including education, health and fire and rescue. Minimum service levels must be preserved during strikes and employers will be entitled to issue work notices to require certain staff to refrain from participation in strike action if they are required to work in order to preserve the minimum service levels. Unions and employees who fail to comply with work notices may lose their protection for organising or participating in the strike action.
Minimum service levels for each sector in scope of the Act are to be defined under regulations. Regulations have now been passed to define minimum service levels for English fire and rescue authorities.
Regulations
The regulations cover English fire and rescue authorities, but exclude volunteer firefighters. The regulations cover the control room, emergency incident response and fire safety services. They set out minimum service levels for each of these types of work, in respect of which fire and rescue authorities may issue work notices.
These regulations follow regulations for passenger rail, ambulance and border security services in December 2023. Further regulations are expected to define minimum service levels in hospitals, schools and universities.
We will continue to report on developments.