The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 (c 21), sometimes abbreviated as FRSA 2004, is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

. It came into effect on 1 October 2004. It only applies to

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and most provisions apply only in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Replacing the previous

Fire Services Act 1947 The Fire Services Act 1947 was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that reorganised fire services in the United Kingdom. It disbanded the National Fire Service and returned the responsibility for running fire services to local authorities ...

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

, it clarifies the duties and powers of

fire authorities In England and Wales a fire authority or fire and rescue authority is a statutory body made up of a committee of local councillors which oversees the policy and service delivery of a fire and rescue service. Prior to the Fire Services Act 2004 man ...

to:- *promote

fire safety Fire safety is the set of practices intended to reduce the destruction caused by fire. Fire safety measures include those that are intended to prevent the ignition of an uncontrolled fire and those that are used to limit the development and eff ...

*fight

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...

s *protect people and property from fires *rescue people from

road traffic Traffic comprises pedestrians, vehicles, ridden or herded animals, trains, and other Public conveyance, conveyances that use public ways (roads) for travel and transportation. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the roa ...

Collision *deal with other specific emergencies, such as

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

ing or

terrorist attack Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

and *do other things to respond to the particular needs of their communities and the

risks In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environme ...

they face.

Section 44

Sections 44(3) and (4) were repealed on 20 February 2007The

Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006 The Emergency Services (Obstruction) Act 2006 (c 39) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is intended to reduce the instances of obstruction of, or assaults on, emergency service personnel. Sections 1 to 6 came into force on 20 ...

, section 7(2); the

Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006 (Commencement) Order 2007 The Emergency Services (Obstruction) Act 2006 (c 39) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is intended to reduce the instances of obstruction of, or assaults on, emergency service personnel. Sections 1 to 6 came into force on 2 ...

(S.I. 2007/153 (C.7))
article 2
/ref> by section 6 of the

Section 61 - Commencement

The following orders have been made under this section:
The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 (Commencement) (England and Scotland) Order 2004
(S.I. 2004/2304 (C. 100))
The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 (Commencement) (Wales) Order 2004
(S.I. 2004/2917 (W. 256) (C. 121))

References

Halsbury's Statutes ''Halsbury's Statutes of England and Wales'' (commonly referred to as ''Halsbury's Statutes'') provides updated texts of every Public General Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Measure of the Welsh Assembly, or Church of England Measur ...

External links

* Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
Information on the actThe Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004
as amended from the National Archives.
The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004
as originally enacted from the National Archives.
Explanatory notes
to the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004. {{UK legislation 2004 in Scotland Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning England and Wales Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning Scotland United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2004 Fire prevention law Emergency management in the United Kingdom Fire and rescue in the United Kingdom