Hoax Calls

HC Deb 03 May 1994 vol 242 cc490-1W

Mr. McFall

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many prosecutions resulted from hoax calls to the fire services in Scotland for each of the past five years: and what percentage they constituted of the total number of call outs.

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

Relevant information for the four years 1989 to 1992 is as follows:

	1989	1990	1991	1992
Persons proceeded against under section 31 of the Fire Services Act 1947.	58	49	70	61
Persons with charge proved under section 31 of the Fire Services Act 1947.	55	41	64	57
Malicious false alarms attended by fire brigades.	13,795	15,241	18,481	22,485
Total incidents attended by fire brigades.	96,124	98,763	112,196	113,102
Malicious false alarms as a percentage of total incidents.	14.35	15.43	16.47	19.88

Notes:

1. Information for 1993 is not yet available.

2. Information on prosecutions for 1988 is not available on the same basis.