Marie Goldman

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. I thank the hon. Member for North Durham (Luke Akehurst) for securing this very important debate. We have heard about some of the incredible, essential work that fire and rescue services do when responding to suicide call-outs. Often first on the scene, making life-or-death decisions in traumatic and dangerous situations that put their own safety at risk, firefighters deserve our utmost respect and support. Since becoming an MP, it has been my pleasure to meet firefighters from my local fire and rescue service and their leadership in my constituency. As part of last year’s inaugural cohort of MPs taking part in the parliamentary knowledge scheme for frontline services, it was also a privilege to visit the London Fire Brigade station in Paddington, which is one of the busiest in London. I am always impressed by the work that firefighters are able to carry out, often in extreme conditions. However, as we have heard, suicide-related call-outs to fire and rescue services have risen markedly. Since records began in England, they have more than tripled, with services attending 3,250 incidents in the year ending September 2025—about 62 every week. Indeed, other rescue services, such as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and Mountain Rescue, also tell me that the biggest increase in their call-outs over the past few years has been to incidents involving self-harm or mental health more generally. When that increase is added to more recent pressures on the fire service—be they budgetary pressures, such as fuel inflation, or the greater number of fire call-outs caused by increasingly hot summers due to the climate emergency—it is more important than ever that our fire and rescue services are better supported by the Government. That is why my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I believe that firefighters should have the training, skills and confidence that they need to respond safely and effectively when someone is experiencing a suicidal crisis. It cannot be right that there is no consistent mandatory suicide prevention training across fire and rescue services in England, and that instead individual services are responsible for their own training. To guarantee any less is fair neither for a firefighter attending such a difficult and upsetting call-out, nor for a patient in need of help. The Liberal Democrats are calling for the Government to review introducing mandatory England-wide suicide prevention training for firefighters and to work with fire and rescue services, local authorities—we have a MHCLG Minister responding to the debate, and this is very relevant to his portfolio—and suicide prevention organisations. As other Members mentioned, the Government have rightly introduced protected time for trauma and suicide prevention training for new police recruits. It must surely follow that firefighters, who often face many of the same situations as police officers, receive equivalent support. Although that would be a welcome step, it should form part of a wider workplace wellbeing safety net. Regular exposure to suicide and traumatic call-outs has serious impacts on firefighters and their mental health, with inevitable knock-on effects for retention in the service. My Liberal Democrat colleagues are therefore keen to ensure regular and comprehensive health screenings for firefighters throughout the whole of their careers—and, indeed, their retirement—so that no firefighter is left without help. Sadly, suicide prevention training is one small part of a broader package of support that fire and rescue services need. I hope the Government will seriously consider our calls for greater suicide prevention training and endorse the clear cross-party sentiment that fire and rescue services—indeed, all rescue services—need to be recognised and supported, given the increasing workloads and pressures that they face.