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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of firefighter numbers in (a) the UK and (b) Poole.

Decisions on how fire and rescue services are run, including the number and locations of fire stations and firefighter numbers, are for the local fire and rescue authority (FRA) and its Chief Fire Officer. FRAs are responsible for ensuring the needs and demands of their local community are met. They are responsible for directing their resources where they are needed most and in accordance with their Community Risk Management Plans (CRMPs).

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) publishes statistics on fire and rescue service (FRS) workforce numbers, response times, and firefighter injuries. The full time equivalent (FTE) number of firefighters and the number of firefighter workplace injuries have both declined since 2010, whilst response times have increased. Correlations between statistics, either positive or negative, are not necessarily causal.