The recent fire at a high-rise building in London which claimed 12 lives has led an opposition MP to question Putrajaya's decision to slash some items from the Fire and Rescue Department budget.

Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin said that the budget cuts, which have led to some programmes being completely defunded would severely hamper the department's operations.

"These allocations are important to the work of firefighters and rescue teams, to upkeep machinery and to buy new equipment."