HC Deb 21 November 1994 vol 250 cc31-5W
Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what has been the average cost per household for fire services for each fire authority area in England and Wales for each year since 1979.

Mr. Nicholas Baker

This information is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many local fire stations have been closed in each fire authority in England and Wales in each year since 1979.

Mr. Nicholas Baker

This information is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the average fire service cover per 1,000 of population for each fire authority area in England and Wales since 1979.

Mr. Nicholas Baker

This information is not available in the form requested.

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many fire engines on average were in use for each fire service in England and Wales in each year since 1979.

Mr. Nicholas Baker

Information in the form requested is not recorded by my Department; but information about the number of fire appliances available to each fire authority has been published annually by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. The figures for 1979–80 to 1989–90 are published in the annual series "Fire Service Statistics, Actuals" and the figures for 1990–91 to 1993–94 are published in "Fire Service Statistics, 1992", "Fire Service Statistics 1993" and "Fire Service Statistics 1994".

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the average cost of attending an incident for each fire authority in England and Wales for each year since 1979 in real terms.

Mr. Nicholas Baker

This information is not available and any attempt to provide it could be only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the average number of hours per year for each fire authority in England and Wales spent on fire prevention for each year since 1979.

Mr. Nicholas Baker

The average number of hours per year for each fire authority in England and Wales spent on fire safety for each year since 1989 is:

Year Hours
1989 30,877
1990 30,224
1991 34,753
1992 35,807
1993–94 36,377

Collection of data for number of hours spent by fire authorities in England and Wales was not commenced until the year 1989. Data for 1989 to 1992 were collected on a calender year basis; those for 1993–94 were collected on a financial year basis.

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many firemen and women were employed by each fire authority in England and Wales in each year since 1979.

Mr. Nicholas Baker

The information requested is published in the annual reports of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Fire Services, copies which can be found in the Library.

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was(a) the capital expenditure budget and (b) the revenue budgets for each fire authority in England and Wales in real terms for each year since 1979.

Mr. Nicholas Baker

The information requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list(a) the number of incidents attended to by each fire authority (b) the class of incident and (c) the estimated average loss per incident for each fire authority in England and Wales since 1979.

Mr. Nicholas Baker

The number and type of fire incidents attended by each fire authority in England and Wales for 1982 to 1992 are given in the annual Home Office publication "Fire Statistics United Kingdom", available in the Library. Primary, secondary and chimney fires are separately identified. The relevant statistical tables for each year are as follows:

Year Table number
1982 59
1983 60
1984 62
1985 65
1986 66
1987 64
1988 64
1989 59
1990 61
1991 62
1992 61

For the years 1979–81, supplementary table S9 contains information on the number of primary and secondary fires for each brigade area. Information on the number of chimney fires for each brigade area for these years is not available.

Information on loss from fire incidents is not collected centrally.

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the average response time per incident for each fire service for each year since 1979.

Mr. Nicholas Baker

The available data are shown in the following table. Data are not available for 1980. Average response times to fire incidents will vary with the different categories of risk within each brigade area.

Average response time1 TO FIRE INCIDENTS BY BRIGADE AREA, 1979, 1981–1992
Brigade area 1979 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992
Avon 9 7 6 6 7 8 8 6 6 6 7 6 6
Bedfordshire 12 7 8 9 11 14 15 7 8 8 10 8 8
Berkshire 15 8 6 10 10 10 19 6 7 6 9 7 6
Buckinghamshire 11 10 9 9 10 10 10 7 9 8 7 8 8
Cambridgeshire 9 9 10 7 9 14 12 8 7 8 8 8 8
Cheshire 9 6 10 8 9 7 9 6 6 6 7 7 7
Cleveland 8 6 5 7 5 9 6 5 5 5 5 5 5
Cornwall 9 6 6 6 8 9 9 5 9 5 6 6 6
Cumbria 10 7 10 9 11 14 10 8 7 8 7 8 7
Derbyshire 10 7 9 7 9 11 8 7 6 7 7 7 7
Devon 12 9 8 8 9 10 11 8 8 7 7 7 7
Dorset 10 12 8 8 11 12 11 7 8 7 7 7 7
Durham 12 8 7 7 10 8 10 7 10 7 8 7 7
East Sussex 7 6 7 8 9 10 11 6 8 6 6 6 6
Essex 10 9 9 8 12 13 11 8 9 7 7 7 7
Gloucestershire 10 11 10 9 10 12 10 9 10 8 8 7 7
Hampshire 10 7 9 8 12 11 14 7 6 6 7 7 6
Hereford and Worcester 10 9 9 8 11 10 12 8 9 8 9 9 9
Hertfordshire 9 6 6 6 10 8 9 9 8 8 8 7 8
Humberside 8 8 7 8 7 8 13 6 9 6 6 7 7
Isle of Wight 7 6 12 6 18 7 17 10 6 7 6 7 7
Kent 10 7 8 8 11 11 9 9 10 7 8 7 8
Lancashire 8 6 6 6 7 9 9 6 6 6 6 6 8
Leicestershire 9 8 8 6 7 6 12 8 8 7 8 7 7
Lincolnshire 10 8 9 9 11 12 15 9 11 9 9 9 9
Norfolk 12 9 8 11 13 10 12 8 8 8 9 8 8
North Yorkshire 10 9 9 8 9 11 13 8 9 8 9 9 9
Northampshire 9 10 8 8 10 12 11 7 9 6 7 7 6
Northumberland 10 9 9 11 8 8 11 9 8 9 8 8 8
Nottinghamshire 9 8 5 7 9 9 13 5 6 5 5 5 6
Oxfordshire 7 7 8 9 13 11 10 7 7 7 7 8 8
Shropshire 11 9 8 9 9 10 12 7 7 7 7 8 7
Somerset 8 7 8 7 9 10 11 8 8 9 8 8 9
Staffordshire 12 8 7 7 9 10 9 7 7 7 7 7 8
Suffolk 10 9 8 10 12 11 12 8 7 9 8 9 8
Surrey 11 7 7 7 8 9 8 6 6 7 7 7 7
Warwickshire 9 9 10 10 8 9 9 7 7 7 8 9 8
West Sussex 9 9 9 13 13 11 11 6 7 8 6 6 7
Wiltshire 10 10 9 8 12 13 10 8 5 8 8 9 8
Greater Manchester 8 8 6 6 7 9 7 5 5 5 5 5 5
Merseyside 10 10 6 6 7 7 8 4 4 4 4 4 4
South Yorkshire 9 9 6 7 7 9 9 5 5 5 5 6 6
Tyne and Wear 6 6 5 4 5 7 7 5 5 6 6 6 5
West Midlands 7 7 5 5 7 8 7 5 5 5 5 5 5
West Yorkshire 9 9 5 5 8 8 9 5 6 5 5 5 5
Greater London 9 9 7 7 9 10 9 6 6 6 6 6 6
Clwyd 12 12 7 7 13 10 10 7 7 7 7 8 7
Dyfed 18 18 9 10 18 15 12 11 9 9 9 9 9
Gwent 13 13 9 8 14 11 12 7 7 8 8 7 8
Gwynedd 18 18 9 11 11 15 16 8 9 9 9 9 9
Mid Glamorgan 8 8 10 7 12 14 12 8 8 9 8 9 9
Powys 11 11 11 11 15 17 13 10 10 10 11 11 10
South Glamorgan 11 11 7 10 14 12 12 6 5 6 6 6 7
West Glamorgan 10 10 8 7 10 10 10 6 6 7 7 7 7
Northern Ireland 10 10 8 7 10 10 9 6 6 6 7 7 7
Strathclyde 10 10 7 8 10 10 8 6 6 6 6 6 7
Highlands and Islands 15 15 12 11 21 15 11 11 11 11 12 13 11
Grampian 11 11 9 8 10 13 12 7 7 7 8 7 7
Tayside 8 8 9 6 11 9 11 6 6 5 5 6 5
Lothian and Borders 9 9 6 6 8 9 10 6 6 5 6 6 6
Fife 9 9 7 7 7 7 10 6 6 6 6 6 6
Central 14 14 7 8 16 10 9 7 7 7 9 7 7
Dumfries 8 8 8 9 8 14 8 9 11 9 10 9 8
Note: 1 From the time the brigade answered the first call to the time when the first fire appliance attended at the fireground.

Source: Home Office fire statistics

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the factors taken into account when determining levels of capital and revenue expenditure for each fire authority in England and Wales.

Mr. Nicholas Baker

It is for each fire authority to determine the level of its capital expenditure and revenue expenditure. My right hon. and learned Friend, in determining basic credit approvals for capital expenditure for each fire and civil defence authority, takes into account a number of factors, including the numbers of fire and emergency and specialist vehicles, fire stations and uniformed employees. The responsibility for distributing basic credit approvals for capital expenditure to county fire authorities in England rests with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment, who is also responsible for determining the standard spending assessments, and determining the capping principles, for all local authorities in England. In Wales, these responsibilities fall to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the average number of hours per year for each fire authority in England and Wales spent on maintaining equipment for each year since 1979.

Mr. Nicholas Baker

The information requested is not available.

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what additional resources will be made available to the probation service to deal with additional assessments of high risk prisoners for home leave from 17 November.

Mr. Nicholas Baker

The major probation service involvement in the new procedures will be through the contribution of probation staff seconded to Prison Service establishments. These staff are paid for by the Prison Service, so probation services will require no additional funding.