Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will estimate the Government spend per head of population on fire and rescue services in (a) Nottinghamshire, (b) the East Midlands and (c) England in each of the last three years.

The table below shows local authority expenditure on fire and rescue services, as well as the number of fire incidents attended, over the last decade. It illustrates the significant fall in the number of incidents attended, whilst average spending has remained broadly the same over that long-term period.

^{Sources: Revenue Outturn forms and Office of National Statistic’s mid-year population estimates.}

My Department does not publish statistics by the former Government Office Regions.

Last year, Sir Ken Knight’s independent review of the fire and rescue services found huge variations in the way that local fire and rescue authorities operated. Services continue to spend according to the budget they are given, rather than to the risks they have to manage. Huge variations exist between how the 46 different fire authorities operate, with the cost per head of providing a service almost double in some areas to that of others. This did not seem to be related to whether they are large or small, rural or urban, deprived or affluent.

Sir Ken concluded that there were significant opportunities for sensible savings such as through: sharing of senior staff, reforms to flexible staffing and crewing arrangements, better procurement, shared services, collaboration with emergency services and other organisations on service delivery and estates, sickness management, locally-led mergers and operational collaborations, new fire-fighting technology, preventative approaches and working with local businesses.