Question
To ask The Senior Deputy Speaker whether he intends to either (1) publish, or (2) share with interested Members of House of Lords, (a) the agenda of, (b) reports presented at, (c) and minutes of, all the meetings of the Fire Safety Committee in 2026; and
Answer
The Fire Safety Committee is part of a governance structure that considers fire safety. It provides assurance for the management of Parliamentary fire safety and implementation of fire safety policy, and holds officials accountable for work in this area. Official level governance is overseen by the Lords Management Board which is chaired by the Clerk of the Parliaments who as Corporate Officer has legal responsibility for safety on the Estate. The Lords Management Board has a bicameral sub-board called the Safety Risk Strategy Board which reports into it and the Fire Safety Committee is a sub-group of this. Member governance in this area includes the Audit and Risk Committee which has had regular updates on health and safety including fire. The Services Committee and Commission are also consulted and informed as appropriate [including in relation to the recent fire drill]. The minutes of the Lords Management Board and Member governance bodies are routinely published. The papers of bodies at the level of Fire Safety Committee are not. However, they can be shared with interested Members on request via my office, subject to the potential redaction of protectively marked information on a case-by-case basis.
Verdict: AMBER (74/100)
The reply addresses all three parts of the question. It says papers at the level of the Fire Safety Committee are not routinely published, but can be shared with interested Members on request, with protectively marked material redacted case by case. That answers the agenda and reports questions directly. The minutes point is only inferred from the general statement about papers rather than stated outright, and sharing depends on making a request and on redaction decisions, so the asker may still need to confirm the position on minutes.
How we got there
| Question item | Coverage | Specificity | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whether the Senior Deputy Speaker intends to publish, or share with interested Members of the House of Lords, the agenda of all meetings of the Fire Safety Committee in 2026. | Addressed | Direct | The reply states that Fire Safety Committee-level papers are not published but commits that they can be shared with interested Members on request via the office, subject to case-by-case redaction of protectively marked material, which directly answers whether the agenda would be shared. |
| Whether the Senior Deputy Speaker intends to publish, or share with interested Members of the House of Lords, the reports presented at all meetings of the Fire Safety Committee in 2026. | Addressed | Direct | Reports presented to the Fire Safety Committee fall within the 'papers of bodies at the level of Fire Safety Committee', and the reply's commitment to share such papers with interested Members on request, subject to redaction, directly answers whether they would be shared. |
| Whether the Senior Deputy Speaker intends to publish, or share with interested Members of the House of Lords, the minutes of all meetings of the Fire Safety Committee in 2026. | Addressed | Direct | Minutes are not separately named for the Fire Safety Committee, but the reply says routinely published minutes apply to LMB and Member bodies while Fire Safety Committee-level papers are not published, and can be shared on request, which together answer the question, though the minutes point is inferred from the general 'papers' statement rather than stated outright. |