Communities and Local Government written question – answered at on 14 May 2009.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
(1) what steps her Department plans to take to enable deaf, hard of hearing and speech-impaired people to make effective use of the 999/112 emergency numbers for the fire and rescue service;
(2) what steps her Department is taking to enable deaf and hard of hearing and speech-impaired people to communicate with the fire and rescue service using the short message text service.
The FiReControl Project is part of the Government's fire and rescue service modernisation agenda. Once implemented, it will provide the emergency call handling and mobilising function for the fire and rescue service in England.
Local arrangements exist for some fire services to receive emergency call via text message. Under the current planning assumptions, regional control centres will have access to existing local services until such a time as they are replaced by a national equivalent.
We are in the final stages of completing a comprehensive equality impact assessment which considers the implications for those who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired. We aim to publish this assessment shortly.
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