Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the number of firefighters to meet operational demand.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) does not have data on firefighter vacancies and recruitment, but it does publish fire and rescue service (FRS) workforce numbers. The latest published statistics say that while the full time equivalent (FTE) number of firefighters has reduced by 0.5%, the total number of FRS staff (FTE) has increased by 0.6% on the previous year.

Decisions on how fire and rescue services are run, their resources and crewing numbers, are for the local Chief Fire Officers and their democratically elected fire and rescue authority. They are responsible for ensuring the needs and demands of their local community are met and are able to direct their resources where they are needed most.