Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many school fires have been reported in each year since 2005; and what the cost has been of replacing or repairing the buildings affected by such fires in each such year.

The numbers of reported school fires in Great Britain are as follows:

2005/06: 1,400

2006/07: 1,200

2007/08: 1,000

2008/09: 1,000

2009/10: -----

2010/11: 800

2011/12: 700

2012/13: 600

2013/14: 600

These are National Statistics’ figures published on GOV.UK and are rounded[1].

There are no statistics for 2009/10 as none were published for that year due to an incomplete data set. Since 2014/15 fire statistics are published as England only, with data on ‘educational premises’ including other institutions such as colleges and universities, alongside schools, which is not consistent with the data above. These England only statistics are available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fire-statistics

The Government does not hold data centrally on the annual cost of replacing or repairing school buildings following damage by fire. However, the Department is currently collecting data on both the capital costs resulting from fire damage and the costs of providing alternative accommodation.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fire-statistics-great-britain-2013-to-2014