§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many vacancies there are for fire personnel in the UK; and what steps he has taken to encourage more people into the service in the last five years. [13536]
§ Dr. WhiteheadBased on annual returns to HM Fire Service Inspectorate, the provisional figures for the establishment and actual strength of the fire service in England and Wales as at 31 March 2001 were as follows:
Establishment Strength Variation Whole-time 33,640 33,376 -264 Retained 14,960 12,033 -2,927 Control 1,428 1,440 +12 Non-uniformed 6,474 6,071 -403 Totals 56,502 52,920 -3,582 Local fire authorities are responsible for the recruitment and selection of fire service staff. In general the fire service is a popular career choice and applications far exceed the number of vacancies available each year. However, in some areas fire authorities and brigades do experience difficulties in recruiting to the retained (volunteer) sections of the fire service. For more than 10 years the Home Office, which had responsibility for fire service matters prior to the transfer to DTLR in June this year, has helped to encourage people to join the fire service both in a full-time and voluntary capacity by providing recruitment literature and advertising posters for local use. Over the last two years the Home Office, and now DTLR, have been encouraging. Fire authorities to review their recruitment practices in order to ensure they reach groups that are currently under-represented in the service. To help authorities to do this DTLR has developed new national recruitment literature which will be launched shortly.