Fire and Rescue Services: Clean Energy Projects

Question

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what consultation they have carried out with the fire and rescue services in England regarding clean energy projects such as battery storage plants; and what assessment they have made of the combustibility and flammability of such projects.

The Government work closely with the National Fire Chiefs Council on battery fire safety. In October 2025, Minister Shanks held a round table on battery safety with industry, regulators and academics, including NFCC representatives. In the last five years, there have been four grid-scale battery fires in Great Britain. Analysis from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero suggests that these fires appear less likely than fires in non-domestic buildings.

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for that Answer, but it is unacceptable, given the fire risk posed by something as highly combustible, flammable and at risk of thermal runaway as these battery energy storage facilities, that fire and rescue services should not be statutory consultees to the planning application. To look at one constituency alone, the former Vale of York constituency that I represented, there are BESS plants to be built in Scotton and Lingerfield, Bedale and South Kilvington. That will put enormous stress on the fire and rescue services of north Yorkshire, which last year had to deal with one of the most aggravating and long-term wildfires that we have seen to date. Will the Minister use his good offices to ensure that, forthwith, in any current planning application, fire and rescue services will be statutory consultees, so that they can advise on the fire risk of each individual site with a view to mitigating the fire risk?

The Government already have moved to make sure that the fire services and developers are closely involved in applications as far as large batteries are concerned. The planning practice guidance has been updated to ensure that developers consult fire services in the pursuit of their applications. The fire service itself considers that to become a statutory consultee would prove enormously bureaucratic and additional to its particular work, and is in line with that particular planning practice guidance update.

My Lords, I declare an interest as the chair of the national Building Safety Regulator and the former London Fire Commissioner. I thank my noble friend the Minister for his Answer. Given the comprehensive new guidance that the Government have published with the National Fire Chiefs Council in December 2025 to directly address the issue of battery energy storage system consultation with fire services, if I was in my former role I would certainly agree that we would have preferred that, rather than the bureaucracy of being a statutory consultee. However, on a related matter, what action are the Government taking following the serious substation fire at Heathrow Airport, which my colleagues at the time fought for many days under very dangerous circumstances, and which closed the airport? Could my noble friend provide an update on how his department intends to implement the 12 recommendations arising from the subsequent National Energy System Operator investigation?

My noble friend, to whom I pay tribute for his enormous service in the fire service over a number of years, really ought to be the person who knows what he is talking about on this subject. He refers to the fire in North Hyde a little while ago, which, as noble Lords will know, caused considerable problems at Heathrow Airport in 2025. That was subject to a NESO investigation into the circumstances around that particular fire, which related to faulty maintenance in a substation. As a result of that investigation by NESO, the Government have accepted all the recommendations that were put forward in the report and are working closely with other government departments and the energy industry in implementing the 12 recommendations and 20 related actions, detailed in the Government’s response to that investigation. Among other things, that ensures a joined-up approach across organisations to improve energy resilience, emergency response and recovery. The majority of actions are forecast to be delivered by the end of 2026.

My Lords, long-duration energy storage is an extremely important part of our energy transition, providing much-needed stability to our future energy systems. Falling prices and evolving technology are also helping. I welcome the Minister’s response, and we recognise that robust safety systems are in place. However, Ministers have previously spoken of considering additional measures to enhance the regulation of the environmental and safety risks of BESS. Does the Minister feel that more work is needed to reassure the public on public safety concerns?

The Government are actively exploring additional measures to manage safety risks on the grid-scale battery energy storage sites. That is important in the context, as the noble Earl mentions, of the substantial expansion that there will be in batteries as an essential part of the UK’s balancing energy system for the future. In August, Defra published a consultation on modernising the environmental permitting regime for industry, which included proposals to include BESS within scope of environmental permitting regulations. The Government are currently reviewing industry feedback and will publish a response in due course. That would require battery developers to demonstrate to the Environment Agency how specific risks were being managed while also providing for ongoing regulatory inspections of battery sites.

My Lords, I declare my directorship of the Global Warming Policy Foundation. When I was the MP for South Thanet, we had a proposal for one of these battery farms—let us call them that—in the constituency. I wrote to Kent Fire and Rescue Service with my concerns, and it wrote back with its own. As my noble friend Lady McIntosh quite rightly states, fire and rescue services really have very little part in the process. I ask the Government to consider a statutory Section 106 requirement applying to each and every one of these battery farms, so that they have to pay for the specialist equipment that local fire and rescue services need to put such fires out. Once they start to go, there is very little that you can do with usual water systems to put them out. It requires specialist equipment and, not least, a local evacuation, because the fumes that come off these lithium-powered fires are very serious and deleterious to health.

I think that we should get this into some proportion. As I have said, the number of battery fires over the last five years is four. The percentage of fires that you might encounter in an industrial premises or commercial premises is higher than the proportion per thousand of battery fires. Battery fires stand within the general problem of fires across industry. As far as the extinction of those fires is concerned, there is protocol already in the fire service about how to deal with those particular fires. It is a process of enabling burnout, so that the battery does not self-reignite. The noble Lord is correct to say that there are issues relating to battery fires, particularly the ability of that battery fire to reignite itself even in the absence of oxygen. There is a protocol now to surround the fire with safety measures and allow it to burn out. That, as far as the fire service chiefs are concerned, is a perfectly adequate and safe response to those fires.

My Lords, can the Minister revisit his figures on battery fires? On 6 September 2024, the noble Lord, Lord Redesdale, led an outstanding debate in your Lordships’ House on lithium-ion battery safety. Superb contributions were made across the House, particularly by the noble Lord, Lord Winston. Since then, battery fires in bin lorries and at waste sites in the UK have reached an all-time high—not four, but more than 1,200 in 2024. That is an increase of 71% from 700 in 2022, which was described by the Environmental Services Association as an “epidemic”. Will the Minister take this opportunity to go back to his department and agree that, at a minimum, we need the fire service, the Environmental Agency, and the Health and Safety Executive to be statutory consultees for all planning and new stand-alone battery energy storage systems? There is urgent action required in this sector.

I do not intend to go back to the department and tell it that its particular concerns are wrong. What we are talking about today are fires in large stand-alone battery storage plants, of which there have been four in the last five years. If the noble Lord would like the individual addresses and locations of those four fires, I have them here. It is not the case that this covers every battery fire there has ever been. We know that certain batteries—for example, illegally imported batteries in scooters—tend to be a little less safe than other batteries. There is proper concern about some areas of battery safety and maintenance, but not about this particular sector, which is very well regulated and safe now. As I have set out today, there have been further measures to ensure that the safety and integrity of those stand-alone batteries is maintained.