HC Deb 21 February 2000 vol 344 cc807-8W
Mr. Sheerman

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many calls to (a) fire brigades, (b) police forces and (c) ambulance services were (i) false alarms and (ii) malicious calls in each of the past five years; [110315]

(2) what was the total number of 999 call-outs, for (a) the Fire Service, (b) the Police and (c) ambulances in each of the past five years; [110313]

(3) what was the total cost of (a) false alarms and (b) malicious calls to the emergency services in each of the past five years. [110305]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

Figures for 999 calls received by fire brigades in England and Wales are not collected. This is because brigades often receive multiple 999 calls for a single incident. Brigades, therefore, record the number of incidents actually attended. The figures include fires, false alarms and special service incidents for the last five years for which the information is available, were as follows:

Number
1994 988,914
1995 1,148,812
1996 1,060,845
1997 991,435
1998 900,287

The following information on numbers of false alarms and malicious calls, therefore, relates to incidents actually attended.

False alarms Malicious calls
1994 295,600 132,200
1995 345,200 102,700
1996 331,600 98,400
1997 341,400 88,800
1998 323,400 74,100

The number of 999 calls received by police forces in England and Wales was as follows:

Number
1993–94 5,297,040
1994–95 6,088,654
1995–96 6,881,163
1996–97 7,297,219
1997–98 7,670,039

No information on false or malicious 999 calls is collected centrally for police forces. Therefore, the information could be made available only at disproportionate cost.

The number of emergency calls received by the ambulance services in England and Wales was as follows:

Calls Response
1994–95 2,611,300 2,609,600
1995–96 3,163,200 2,855,700
1996–97 3,337,000 2,993,800
1997–98 3,576,200 3,160,500
1998–99 3,847,500 3,291,000

The difference between the number of calls and the number of actual responses is due to: duplicate calls, false alarms and hoaxes. It is not possible to separate these into the different categories.