Communities and Local Government

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• Statistical Release

Fire and Rescue Service Operational Statistics Bulletin for England 2006-07

The latest Fire and Rescue Service operational statistics produced by Communities and Local Government were released on Tuesday 6 May 2008.

This bulletin contains the operational statistics relating to the Fire and Rescue Services in England for the financial year 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007. Issues covered include; personnel, equality and diversity, health and safety and operational activities.

Key points from the Bulletin are:

• At 31 March 2007, there were 51,300 fire and rescue service staff (full-time equivalents) in England, representing an increase of 3 per cent over the last 5 years.
• At 31 March 2007, minority ethnic staff formed 3.2 per cent of all staff in England - up from 3.0 per cent in 2005.
• At 31 March 2007, women formed 3.1 per cent of the operational workforce (firefighters). There has been some improvement in the representation of women in the service over the last three years;
• During 2006-07, there were 8.3 shifts/days lost through sickness absence per wholetime firefighter, down from 9.4 in 2005-06, and 12.6 shifts/days lost per member of fire control staff - up from 11.9 on the previous year.
• In 2006-07, over 797 thousand incidents were attended in England, with about 339,800 fires attended. Fires accounted for 43 per cent of the total incidents attended by fire and rescue services.
• There were about 291,000 call-outs for fire false alarms in 2006-07; a decrease of nearly 17 per cent from 2005-06.

The annual statistical bulletin is available at: Fire and Rescue Service Operational Statistics Bulletin for England 2006-07.