To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what research he has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the effect of trends in levels of smoking in domestic premises on trends in the number of domestic fires since 1988. (281705)

Research has been commissioned into factors that relate to the incidence of fires and deaths in dwellings. This research, undertaken in early spring 2009, found that statistically smoking is one of a number of factors associated with the fall in dwelling fire deaths. The research will published in the autumn.