Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many (a) whole time, (b) retained and (c) control firefighters were employed by each UK fire and rescue service in each of the last five years.

The numbers of firefighters employed in England, for each of the past five years for which data are available, and in terms of total headcount, are provided in the attached summary table. Data are as reported by fire and rescue services, and are broken down by whole time, retained duty system and fire control staff. The numbers of non-uniformed support staff are also shown, along with the total number of incidents attended by fire and rescue services over the period.

The breakdown of annual headcount figures for each fire and rescue service is provided in attached tables.

The Department holds data for England only, other parts of the UK are dealt with by devolved administrations.