Research Projects

Robert Neill Excerpts

Wednesday 9th February 2011 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Robert Neill)]

Today the Government are publishing a group of reports presenting the findings from research projects commissioned by the previous Administration.

There is a significant backlog of unpublished reports that were produced by the previous Government and over the next few months we will be publishing these reports in groups themed on a particular topic.

The reports and findings are of general policy interest, but do not relate to forthcoming policy announcements. We are publishing these documents in the interests of transparency and as part of our freedom of information commitment to publish the results of all commissioned research. For transparency, all completed work is being published regardless of format or robustness.

The five reports published today represent the findings from three research projects at a total cost of £191,000, excluding VAT. These findings cover fire-related topics.

The Government are concerned to ensure their research delivers best possible value for money for the taxpayer and that sums expended are reasonable in relation to the public policy benefits obtained. DCLG has put in place scrutiny and challenge processes for future research.

All new projects will be scrutinised to ensure the methodology is sound and that all options for funding are explored at an early stage. This includes using existing work from other organisations, joint funding projects with other Departments or organisations and taking work forward in-house.

Cost of Fire

(i) The Economic Cost of Fire: Estimates for 2006—This report provides an estimate of the cost of fire to the economy in England in 2006.

(ii) The Economic Cost of Fire: Estimates for 2008—This report was produced by DCLG researchers. The spreadsheet model developed for the 2006 estimates was used to update the cost of fire estimates to 2008.

Retained Duty System

(iii) Survey of Retained Duty System (RDS) personnel, former staff and FRS managers—Part A—A survey of serving and former RDS personnel. This is the first part of a report providing findings of a survey of serving and former RDS personnel in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

(iv) A Survey of Retained Duty System (RDS) personnel, former staff and FRS managers—Part B—A survey of RDS managers. This is the second part of the report and provides the findings of an organisational survey completed by RDS managers from fire and rescue services in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Fire Service Emergency Cover (FSEC) major incidents risk assessment module

(v) FSEC major incidents risk assessment module: background research—This report details the work carried out to specify a method of assessing the risk from different types of major incident in a way that could be incorporated into the FSEC toolkit software and to provide suitable risk factors based on data available at the time of the work.

These reports and findings are of general policy interest, but do not relate to forthcoming policy announcements and are not a reflection of the current Government’s policies and priorities. DCLG is publishing these reports in the interests of transparency.

Copies of these reports are available on the DCLG website. Copies have been placed in the Library of the House.