The Transfer of Functions (Fire and Rescue Services) Order 2025

Made: 6th May 2025

Laid before Parliament: 13th May 2025

Coming into force: 3rd June 2025

At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 6th day of May 2025Present,The King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council

His Majesty, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 2 of the Ministers of the Crown Act 1975[^f00001], is pleased, by and with the advice of His Privy Council, to order as follows:

Citation and commencement

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• (1) This Order may be cited as the Transfer of Functions (Fire and Rescue Services) Order 2025.

• (2) This Order comes into force on 3rd June 2025.

Interpretation

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In this Order—

• “fire and rescue function” means a function which— was entrusted to the Home Secretary immediately before 1st April 2025, and has been entrusted to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government before the making of this Order;

• “the Home Secretary” means the Secretary of State for the Home Department;

• “instrument” includes Royal Charters, Royal Warrants, Orders in Council, Letters Patent, judgments, decrees, orders, rules, regulations, schemes, bye-laws, awards, licences, authorisations, consents, approvals, contracts and other agreements, memoranda and articles of association, certificates, deeds and other documents.

Provision supplemental to the transfer of functions from the Home Secretary to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government

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• (1) There are transferred to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government all property, rights and liabilities to which the Home Secretary is entitled or subject at the coming into force of this Order in connection with a fire and rescue function.

• (2) Anything (including legal proceedings) which, at the coming into force of this Order, is in the process of being done by or in relation to the Home Secretary may, so far as it relates to a fire and rescue function or anything transferred by paragraph (1), be continued by or in relation to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

• (3) Anything done (or having effect as if done) by or in relation to the Home Secretary in connection with a fire and rescue function or anything transferred by paragraph (1) has effect, so far as necessary for continuing its effect after the coming into force of this Order, as if done by or in relation to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

• (4) Documents or forms printed for use in connection with a fire and rescue function may be used in connection with the exercise of that function by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government even though they contain, or are to be read as containing, references to the Home Secretary; and for the purposes of the use of any such documents or forms in connection with the exercise of that function by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, those references are to be read as references to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

• (5) Any enactment or instrument passed or made before the coming into force of this Order has effect, so far as necessary for the purposes of or in consequence of the entrusting of a fire and rescue function to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government or for the purposes of or in consequence of paragraph (1), as if references to the Home Secretary (and references which are to be read as references to the Home Secretary) were or included references to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

• (6) This article does not affect the validity of anything done (or having effect as if done) by or in relation to the Home Secretary before the coming into force of this Order.

• (7) In paragraphs (2) to (6)—

• (a) references to the Home Secretary are to be read as including references to the department or an officer of the Home Secretary, and

• (b) references to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government are to be read as including references to the department or an officer of the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government accordingly.

Signed

Richard Tilbrook — Clerk of the Privy Council

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Order in Council)

Explanatory Note

This Order, made under section 2 of the Ministers of the Crown Act 1975, provides for the transfer of property, rights and liabilities from the Home Secretary to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, in consequence of the transfer of functions in relation to fire and rescue services from the Home Secretary to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Nothing in this Order alters the functions of the Welsh Ministers, the Scottish Ministers or the devolved authorities in Northern Ireland.

An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sector is foreseen.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 1975 c. 26.