What do climate control and the Home Office have to do with each other? More than you think

There has been a lesser-known and more recent addition to the Home Office’s portfolio: fire rescue, writes Jen Bagelman

When you think of the Home Office, “climate” probably does not immediately spring to mind. Instead, you might think about border control, maybe policing and counter-terrorism.

And yet, control of the climate might well be the Home Office’s next frontier. And that is partly because of a lesser-known and more recent addition to the Home Office’s portfolio: fire rescue.

In past years the Home Office has faced intensified public critique. The Windrush scandal drew critical attention to the inner workings of the Home Office in producing a hostile environment. The department was also accused of mistreatment and dodging scrutiny after a damming report on the government’s response to the surge in Channel crossings was published.

In light of these failings, one Guardian long read persuasively argues that “something seems badly wrong at the heart of one of Britain’s most important ministries”. The piece exposes an irony that this department of law and order is persistently “found to have broken the law”.

While the Home Office has attracted considerable attention in terms of its border enforcement, one aspect of its control has gone mostly overlooked. That is, the Home Office’s governance of fire and rescue service.

In January 2016, the Home Office announced it would take responsibility for government policy in relation to fire and rescue service. This shift happened subtly. Indeed, Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, pointed out that this was done with “little or no discussion or consultation”. Wrack also argued this was a perilous shift. Notably he contended that the Home Office “does not have the experience, expertise or democratic mandate to take over the governance of fire and rescue”.

But what does the Home Office’s expanded control over fire have to do with climate change?

Enter the summer of 2022. The UK faces its highest-recorded temperatures, with a heatwave leading to unprecedented fire. Cities across the country were warned of wildfire risk and London firefighters experienced their busiest day since the Second World War.

In the context of intensifying climate-induced fires, the Home Office’s reach into fire control takes on a whole new meaning. To plan, monitor and respond to climate-induced fires involves a great deal of responsibility and care. What may have been imagined to be a minor mandate (an afterthought) will increasingly become a major one. Already, the Home Office has made clear its intention to “provide an effective response to wildfire incidents’ by working closely with Defra”.

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It seems a vital moment to ask: given that the Home Office has been widely identified as “failing”, is this a department best suited to responsibly handle the most pressing crises of our times? What are the implications of the Home Office’s expansion into climate change policy? And should the Home Office be at the helm of our climate futures?

Without doubt, climate change is a systemic problem that requires a systemic approach. And yet, the creeping encroachment of Home Office authority into climate governance comes with real dangers. Tackling climate change and putting in place the needed mitigations cannot come at the expense of civil liberties, transparency and accountability – all of which have been repeatedly trampled by the Home Office under numerous leaderships.

As a first urgent step, greater public discussion needs to emerge around our climate governance, who we entrust to carry out these vital responsibilities and what oversight is needed to ensure that the failings plaguing Home Office activities do not doom our climate future.