Comparative Fire Rescue Service Data for Performance Committee

Requested by Jon Charters, Assistant Chief Fire Officer.
Produced 14^th November 2024

DATA PERIOD: Rolling 12-month period, to year ending June 2024.

Introduction

On a quarterly basis the Home Office publish a rolling 12-month update on national Fire Service activity, with the latest release being termed as year ending June 2024, meaning the 12-month period to the end of quarter one. For ease of reading, the periods are referred to by the year. E.g. The latest period will be named 2024.

This report compares a selection of key Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) activity against other Fire and Rescue Services in the country, along with the current LFRS position and trend.

Selected metrics:

1. Total incidents

2. Dwelling fires

3. Dwelling fire casualties

4. Non-domestic building fires

5. Assist other agencies

6. RTC’s attended

Source: Fire statistics data tables - GOV.UK

Context needs to be maintained when comparing Fire and Rescue Services due to their diverse makeup. A table is included which indicates if the Service is classed as Predominately Urban, Significantly Rural or Predominantly Rural: Lancashire is classified as Predominately Urban.

Summary

Lancashire FRS has one of the higher incident levels of the total 44 Fire Services in England, currently ranking 8^th as at the 12-month period to June 2024 [page 2]. LFRS also has greater activity than a number of the metropolitan Services and is also the highest activity of a predominantly Urban, non-metropolitan Service [page 4].

With decreasing numbers of fire incidents, and increasing non-fire incidents, the proportion of incidents recorded as non-fire incidents has surpassed the count of fire incidents for the first time. Fire false alarms continue to account for the largest proportion [page 3].

Whilst overall activity has been increasing over the last ten years, the latest 12 month period has shown a reduction within LFRS and across the majority of other FRS’s [page 5].

There has been notable decreasing in dwelling fires attended [page 6], and a smaller, if fluctuating, decrease in the resultant domestic fire casualties [page 7]. It is a similar view with fires in non-domestic properties which have been in a slight overall decline [page 8].

These are offset by large increases in assist other agency incidents. A similar trend is seen nationally, with LFRS recording the largest number outside of Greater London [page 9].

Road traffic collisions have been steadily trending upwards [page 10].

1. Total incidents:

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) attended 16,903 incidents during year ending June 2024, against an England FRS average of 11,016.

NOTE: Greater London (131,664), and Isles of Scilly (47), are both excluded from the chart/average due to recording very high/low counts. A full list of FRSs and their activity is shown on page 4.

Over the past decade, the number of incidents attended by LFRS has been on a gradual upward trend, with activity increasing 40.7% since the 13,906 incidents in 2014 to the 19,563 recorded in 2023. However, in the latest year ending June 2024 there has been 16,903 attended incidents, a decrease of 13.6% over the previous year.

This follows a similar national trend, although the decrease within Lancashire was larger than the average 4.6% seen nationally.

The share of incidents between incident types has changed over the past decade, with an increasing share of incidents being non-fire incidents over recent years. Fire incidents have steadily been decreasing and there has been a reduction in false alarms during more recent years.

For the year ending June 2024 the share of fire incidents was 24.4%, the lowest since comparable data became available, with non-fire incidents accounting for 30.9% and fire false alarms, 44.7%.

In 2014, the split was: Fire 38.0%, non-fire 17.9% and false alarms 44.1%.

Fire and Rescue Service counts by each selected incident type. Lancashire is the classified as predominantly urban and has the highest total incident count within a non-metropolitan Service, predominantly urban Service (year ending June 2024). *Greater London and Isles of Scilly included for reference.

MET/ NON MET	Predominantly Urban/ Significantly Rural	Fire and Rescue Service	Total incidents	Domestic fires	Domestic fire casualties	Non-domestic building fires	Assist other agencies	RTC's
Metropolitan	Urban	Greater London*	131,664	4,688	485	1,504	4,626	4,264
	Urban	Greater Manchester	31,329	1,597	126	704	252	1,982
	Urban	West Midlands	27,738	1,526	62	492	764	2,696
	Urban	West Yorkshire	24,546	1,045	147	405	963	605
	Urban	Merseyside	16,752	804	65	261	1,270	730
	Urban	Tyne and Wear	16,477	600	46	189	91	342
	Urban	South Yorkshire	13,505	666	61	216	1,160	410
Non-metropolitan	Rural	Hampshire&Isle of Wight	18,067	714	44	297	555	1,123
	Rural	Kent	17,808	549	82	274	1,576	1,307
	Rural	Devon and Somerset	17,579	804	53	329	567	764
	Urban	Lancashire	16,903	757	55	358	1,724	662
	Rural	Essex	16,605	720	47	232	799	1,270
	Rural	Dorset and Wiltshire	14,416	638	40	344	848	714
	Rural	Humberside	12,742	385	23	218	708	504
	Urban	Avon	11,478	565	51	207	780	539
	Urban	Hertfordshire	11,082	412	36	130	1,232	593
	Urban	Nottinghamshire	10,622	593	41	338	510	563
	Rural	East Sussex	10,445	460	28	164	958	407
	Urban	Surrey	10,155	440	38	167	628	1,032
	Rural	Leicestershire	9,293	374	25	204	874	756
	Rural	Norfolk	8,927	488	28	236	833	662
	Rural	West Sussex	8,606	381	14	123	717	521
	Urban	Cleveland	8,358	249	13	86	102	374
	Urban	Berkshire	8,122	360	37	119	313	429
	Rural	North Yorkshire	8,100	270	13	170	623	499
	Rural	Hereford and Worcester	8,097	348	20	161	299	730
	Rural	Cheshire	8,024	324	9	126	793	390
	Rural	Cambridgeshire	7,966	286	38	175	445	447
	Rural	Buckinghamshire	7,953	297	26	240	179	531
	Rural	Staffordshire	7,926	458	15	297	84	730
	Rural	Bedfordshire	7,784	287	14	125	691	504
	Rural	Derbyshire	6,720	403	27	136	216	603
	Rural	Lincolnshire	6,700	306	20	147	308	783
	Rural	Durham	6,565	252	25	116	140	335
	Rural	Oxfordshire	6,389	213	12	157	127	419
	Rural	Gloucestershire	5,971	297	24	98	603	304
	Rural	Suffolk	5,766	334	25	128	244	292
	Rural	Northamptonshire	5,517	342	12	181	233	462
	Rural	Cornwall	5,159	242	15	117	235	339
	Rural	Cumbria	4,664	198	8	80	492	266
	Rural	Warwickshire	4,461	240	18	70	169	466
	Rural	Shropshire	4,161	213	15	121	121	313
	Rural	Northumberland	3,195	135	9	54	53	223
	Rural	Isles Of Scilly*	47	0	0	0	2	0

Total incident count by Fire and Rescue Service since 2014 to 2024. Includes a direction of travel trend indictor, based over the same period.

*Greater London and Isles of Scilly included for reference.

Year ending June:	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	Trend
Greater London*	100,939	95,483	100,884	105,465	104,007	104,489	102,924	100,367	117,310	126,498	131,664	5
Greater Manchester	27,758	27,969	33,033	35,265	31,975	31,478	30,103	27,401	30,780	32,914	31,329	5
West Midlands	24,756	25,617	24,315	25,470	26,838	28,419	25,866	25,056	26,537	29,408	27,738	5
West Yorkshire	22,256	21,569	21,947	23,365	23,122	25,137	23,971	23,823	25,188	26,589	24,546	5
Hampshire &Isle of Wight	15,159	13,904	14,820	16,485	16,586	17,653	17,119	16,475	16,890	18,213	18,067	5
Kent	13,039	11,679	13,074	16,492	20,059	20,680	19,414	17,981	20,305	19,607	17,808	5
Devon and Somerset	18,260	17,424	17,562	17,145	19,470	15,735	15,342	15,353	16,680	18,081	17,579	6
Lancashire	13,906	13,538	16,123	15,850	16,583	17,324	17,897	17,518	19,316	19,563	16,903	5
Merseyside	14,431	14,087	14,807	16,085	15,810	15,858	15,625	16,399	18,241	18,853	16,752	5
Essex	13,956	13,198	14,342	16,427	15,184	15,590	15,255	14,518	15,703	17,760	16,605	5
Tyne and Wear	14,795	14,939	14,030	16,616	16,722	17,625	16,214	16,077	18,230	18,239	16,477	5
Dorset and Wiltshire	13,589	12,771	11,854	13,013	13,373	14,227	13,931	13,515	13,984	15,052	14,416	5
South Yorkshire	11,354	12,215	12,771	14,418	13,825	16,065	13,154	12,492	14,516	15,707	13,505	5
Humberside	9,341	9,801	15,282	15,339	13,233	14,105	12,818	12,540	13,671	13,653	12,742	5
Avon	11,106	10,654	10,855	11,846	11,620	12,449	11,434	9,186	10,372	11,553	11,478	6
Hertfordshire	8,826	8,429	8,816	10,416	10,282	10,492	10,285	9,842	10,366	11,522	11,082	5
Nottinghamshire	9,622	9,595	9,801	11,516	10,514	11,059	9,445	9,304	10,321	11,197	10,622	5
East Sussex	9,518	8,837	8,949	9,565	9,351	9,611	10,177	9,930	10,689	10,579	10,445	5
Surrey	11,043	11,190	12,277	14,242	11,321	11,407	10,805	9,967	10,802	10,790	10,155	6
Leicestershire	7,832	7,294	7,763	8,095	8,161	8,638	8,353	7,695	8,533	9,484	9,293	5
Norfolk	7,555	7,213	7,302	7,725	7,144	7,587	7,299	7,512	7,724	8,969	8,927	5
West Sussex	9,429	8,487	8,578	9,221	9,118	9,382	9,407	8,797	9,379	9,439	8,606	5
Cleveland	7,841	8,574	8,335	11,385	7,864	9,036	8,072	8,463	9,967	10,198	8,358	5
Berkshire	6,132	5,900	7,557	8,706	7,658	7,860	7,380	6,767	7,698	8,225	8,122	5
North Yorkshire	7,210	6,975	7,035	6,731	6,571	7,360	7,396	6,635	8,050	8,258	8,100	5
Hereford and Worcester	6,648	6,173	6,634	6,899	7,146	7,445	7,951	7,065	7,576	8,266	8,097	5
Cheshire	7,629	7,390	8,022	8,611	7,867	8,602	8,174	8,024	8,247	8,726	8,024	5
Cambridgeshire	6,653	6,569	6,794	7,446	7,056	7,519	7,201	6,553	7,815	8,406	7,966	5
Buckinghamshire	6,680	6,683	8,184	8,143	7,786	8,022	8,199	7,453	7,685	8,218	7,953	5
Staffordshire	8,564	8,488	8,144	8,391	8,393	9,186	8,329	7,778	8,143	9,041	7,926	6
Bedfordshire	5,619	5,925	5,806	6,656	5,770	6,049	6,012	6,097	7,157	7,677	7,784	5
Derbyshire	6,735	6,779	7,728	7,960	6,721	6,970	6,224	6,111	6,788	7,187	6,720	6
Lincolnshire	8,681	8,998	11,271	13,293	12,511	10,427	9,255	8,541	7,599	7,452	6,700	6
Durham	6,514	6,654	7,915	9,495	7,178	7,746	6,866	7,159	8,392	8,349	6,565	5
Oxfordshire	5,343	5,285	6,155	7,159	6,227	6,104	5,964	5,575	6,328	6,557	6,389	5
Gloucestershire	6,344	5,916	5,004	4,671	5,150	5,154	5,272	5,358	5,980	6,486	5,971	5
Suffolk	5,232	4,860	4,961	5,151	4,839	5,258	5,278	5,328	5,453	6,217	5,766	5
Northamptonshire	7,157	6,943	7,021	6,171	5,542	5,457	5,437	5,004	5,432	6,007	5,517	6
Cornwall	5,473	4,798	5,032	5,571	6,129	5,352	5,140	5,048	5,243	5,375	5,159	6
Cumbria	4,112	4,097	4,500	4,049	3,931	3,736	4,011	4,119	4,704	5,235	4,664	5
Warwickshire	3,001	3,169	3,311	3,237	3,536	4,097	3,839	3,483	3,894	4,594	4,461	5
Shropshire	3,659	3,641	3,763	3,763	3,875	4,005	4,268	3,771	3,555	4,249	4,161	5
Northumberland	2,966	3,103	3,253	3,319	3,149	3,569	3,300	3,149	3,901	3,674	3,195	5
Isles Of Scilly*	18	29	20	27	13	15	36	15	35	19	47	5

2. Domestic fires:

LFRS attended 757 dwelling fire incidents during year ending June 2024, against an England FRS average of 490. NOTE: Greater London (4,668), and Isles of Scilly (0), are both excluded from the chart/average.

To the year ending June 2024 dwelling fires attended by LFRS have reduced from 1,061 in 2014 to 757 in the latest period, a reduction of 28.7%.

This is a greater reduction than that seen across all other Fire and Rescue Services (average), which saw an 18.8% decrease over the same period.

3. Dwelling fire casualties:

There were 55 casualties requiring hospital treatment from dwelling fire incidents during the year ending June 2024, against an England FRS average of 36. NOTE: Greater London (485), and Isles of Scilly (0), are both excluded from the chart/average.

To the year ending June 2024 there have been 55 casualties requiring hospital treatment from dwelling fire incidents by LFRS. These have reduced by 21.4% from the 70 recorded in 2014.

This is a slightly smaller reduction than that seen across all other Fire and Rescue Services (average), which saw a 25.5% decrease over the same period.

4. Non-Domestic building fires:

LFRS attended 358 non-domestic building fire incidents during the year ending June 2024, against an England FRS average of 209. NOTE: Greater London (1,504), and Isles of Scilly (0), are both excluded from the chart/average.

Fires in non-domestic properties attended by LFRS decreased by 11.8% from the 406 recorded in 2014.

This is a smaller reduction than that seen across all other Fire and Rescue Services, which saw a 15.% decrease over the same period.

5. Assist other agencies:

LFRS attended 1,724 assist other agency* incidents during the year ending June 2024, against an England FRS average of 578. NOTE: Greater London (4,626), and Isles of Scilly (2), are both excluded from the chart/average.

*Approximately 50% of assist other agency incidents are to gain entry to a domestic property on behalf of the Ambulance or Police.

To the year ending June 2024 assist other agency incidents attended by LFRS have seen large increases, with 1,724 recorded in the latest period, from a low of 115 in 2014, an increase of 1,399.1%.

This is a significantly larger increase than that seen across all other Fire and Rescue Services, which still saw a significant 529.9% increase over the same period.

6. Road Traffic Collisions (RTC’s) attended:

LFRS attended 662 road traffic collision incidents during the year ending June 2024, against an England FRS average of 658. NOTE: Greater London (4,626), and Isles of Scilly (2), are both excluded from the charts (and average) due to recording very high/low counts.

To the year ending June 2024 Road Traffic Collisions incidents attended by LFRS have seen relatively small increases, with 662 recorded in the latest period, from 512 in 2014, an increase of 29.3%.

This is a larger increase than that seen across all other Fire and Rescue Services (average), which saw a 9.8% increase over the same period.