Antigua and Barbuda’s governing administration is moving forward with a plan to scrap decades-old, outdated legislation that regulates the country’s Fire and Rescue Service, replacing it with a modernized legal framework that formally acknowledges the service’s vastly expanded role in modern emergency response and land, sea, and air rescue operations.
The core piece of this update, the Fire and Rescue Service Bill 2026, is scheduled for official introduction to the nation’s House of Representatives on September 18, setting the stage for parliamentary debate and review.
During a recent briefing to the Cabinet, Attorney General Sir Steadroy Benjamin outlined that the proposed new law was crafted specifically to align the service’s governing legal structure with the expanded day-to-day responsibilities it has taken on in recent decades. Where the original legislation framed the service as primarily focused on fire suppression, modern operations now include a wide range of emergency response activities that were not envisioned when the original law was written.
This fire service reform is not an isolated policy push. It forms one part of a far larger, comprehensive package of public safety and justice system overhauls that the Antigua and Barbuda Parliament is expected to review in the coming legislative session. Other proposed new laws covered in the package touch on critical areas including policing oversight, forensic service operations, firearms regulation, streamlined court procedures, and updated frameworks for mental health care across the country.
Government officials emphasized that all of these legislative updates share a common goal: to ensure that the nation’s emergency response agencies, law enforcement bodies, and justice system institutions all operate under legal rules that are tailored to fit their modern, evolving functions, rather than relying on outdated statutes that do not reflect current operational needs.