Official Statistics

Fire and rescue workforce and pensions statistics: England, year ending March 2023

Published 19 October 2023

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2023

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Frequency of release: Annual

Forthcoming releases: Home Office statistics release calendar

Home Office responsible statistician: Helene Clark

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Public enquiries: firestatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk

This release presents workforce and pensions statistics for Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) in England for the year ending March 2023. The release includes information on total workforce numbers, workforce diversity, leavers and joiners, firefighter injuries, attacks on firefighters, pension fund income and expenditure and pension schemes membership. The tables on workforce diversity have been improved this year to include more information on rank of the workforce but we are mindful of the importance of protecting personal data - for more information see the accompanying ‘Fire and Rescue Service workforce and pension statistics quality and methodology information’.

Key results

FRSs employed 30,723 full time equivalent (FTE) firefighters on 31 March 2023[footnote 1]. This is a 1% decrease compared with the previous year (31,034). Over the past decade, the number of firefighters has decreased by 20%, while the number of incidents and fires attended have increased by 19% and 16%, respectively.

As of 31 March 2023, 8.7% (2,985) of firefighters employed by Fire and Rescue Authorities (FRAs) were women, compared with 8.1% (2,819) in the previous year, and 5.7% (1,980) 5 years ago. This compares to 37% of police officers[footnote 2] and 51% of the English population[footnote 3].

On the same day 8.0% (2,513) of firefighters employed by FRAs who stated their ethnicity were from an ethnic minority, compared with 7.4% (2,366) in the previous year and 6.7% (2.109) 5 years ago. This compares to 8.8% of police officers and 26% of the English population.

1. Total workforce

This section covers information on the total FRS workforce, leavers, joiners and apprentices. The total workforce subsection covers FTE figures as of 31 March 2023. The leavers, joiners and apprentices’ subsections provide headcount figures that cover the year ending March 2023 and the position on 31 March 2023.

Key results

As of 31 March 2023:

  • FRSs employed 30,723 FTE firefighters - this is a 1.0% decrease compared with the previous year (31,034), a 4.0% decrease compared to 5 years ago (32,002) and a 20% decrease compared to 10 years ago (38,273)
  • FRSs employed 39,500 FTE staff on 31 March 2023 - this is virtually unchanged compared with the previous year (39,512), a 1.4% decrease compared to 5 years ago (40,077) and a 16% decrease compared to 10 years ago (47,011)
  • FRSs employed 1,068 FTE fire control staff on 31 March 2023 - this is a 1.7% decrease compared with the previous year (1,087), virtually unchanged compared to 5 years ago (1,061) and a 19% decrease compared to 10 years ago (1,319)
  • FRSs employed 7,709 FTE support staff on 31 March 2023 - this is a 4.3% increase compared with the previous year (7,391), a 9.9% increase compared to 5 years ago (7,014) and a 3.9% increase compared to 10 years ago (7,419)

During the year to March 2023:

  • 4,299 staff (measured by headcount[footnote 4]) left FRSs (10% of the total number of staff, measured by headcount, at the start of year), compared to 4,640 (10%) in the previous year, 3,988 (9%) 5 years ago and 3,847 (8%) 10 years previously
  • 4,295 staff (measured by headcount) joined FRSs (10% of the total headcount at the start of year), compared to 3,855 (9%) in the previous year and 3,757 (8%) 5 years ago
  • of the 4,295 new staff, 950 were new apprentices (measured by headcount), compared to 807 in the previous year

Role definitions

Wholetime firefighter - a full time firefighter, regardless of rank.

On-call firefighter - a firefighter responding when required during their ‘on-call’ hours, sometimes called Retained Duty System.

Firefighter - a firefighter, whether wholetime or on-call.

Fire control - a uniformed member of staff working in a Fire and Rescue Service control centre to answer emergency calls and deal with mobilising, communications, and related activities, regardless of rank.

Support staff - a member of staff employed by the FRA who is not a firefighter or in fire control. It includes administrative roles, clerical support, analytical support, finance, vehicle maintenance, property management etc. These can also be known as ‘Green Book staff’.

Grey Book staff - the ‘Grey Book staff’ protocol constitutes all operational (that is, wholetime and on-call firefighters) and control room staff.

Gold Book staff - the ‘Gold Book’ classification includes brigade managers or the equivalent.

Apprentice - a paid worker employed under an apprenticeship scheme with a signed Apprenticeship Agreement in place with either an FRS or an apprenticeship training agency.

Figure 1.1 shows that the total FTE workforce gradually increased from around 49,400 in 2002 to a peak of around 51,700 in 2009. This was an average increase of 0.7% per year. Over this same time period, the total number of firefighters (FTE) was broadly stable (decreasing by around 400), while support staff (FTE) increased by around 2,600. Since the peak in 2009, the total workforce (FTE) decreased to around 40,100 in 2018. This was an average decrease of 2.8% per year with the number of firefighters (FTE) decreasing by 3.0% per year and fire control staff decreasing by 4.1% per year. Since 2018 the decreases have been far smaller, with the total staff (FTE) figure 577 lower in 2023 than in 2018.

Generally over the last decade, while the number of firefighters has been decreasing, so has the number of incidents attended. Between March 2009 (the peak in total staff) and 2022, the number of firefighters decreased by 26% while the number of incidents attended decreased by 20%. In comparison between March 2009 and 2023, only one year extra, the number of firefighters decreased by a similar percentage (27%), but the number of incidents attended decreased by 13%. This change is mainly due to the large increase in the number of outdoor fires attended in the summer of 2022.

Figure 1.1: Total staff employed (FTE) by FRAs by role, England; 2002 to 2023

Source: FIRE1101

On 31 March 2023 FRSs employed 39,500 FTE staff. Table 6.1 shows that this is similar to the totals 1 year previous (virtually unchanged) and 5 years ago (a 1.4% decrease) but showed a 16% decrease compared to 2013.

61% of all wholetime firefighters (using FTE) were ‘non-managerial’ on 31 March 2023; this percentage has been remarkably consistent since this information was first collected in 2011. It is a similar story with on-call firefighters, but with higher percentages - 72% of all on-call firefighters (using FTE) were ‘non-managerial’ on 31 March 2023. Fire control ranks were again relatively consistent, but this time with lower percentages in the ‘non-managerial’ rank - 52% of all fire control (using FTE) were ‘non-managerial’ on 31 March 2023.

FRSs employed 1,791 apprentices (measured by headcount) on 31 March 2023, compared to 1,430 in the previous year. Of these, 950 joined within the year to March 2023.

The ratio of wholetime firefighters to on-call firefighters (using FTE) was 3.0 in 2002 (the earliest year this data is available). This ratio showed a slow downward trend so that there were only 2.3 wholetime firefighters per on-call firefighter in 2016. Since then, the ratio has increased to 2.8 in 2023.

The ratio of FTE to headcount for on-call firefighters was stable between 2002 (the earliest year this data is available) and 2016 at between 0.81 to 0.85. Since then, the ratio has decreased notably to 0.77 5 years ago, 0.69 a year ago and 0.67 on 31 March 2023.

Staff leaving and joining FRSs

Information on leavers and joiners are collected on a headcount (that is, an individual rather than FTE) basis. The proportion of FRS staff who left or joined is calculated as the number of FRS staff who left or joined in each year as a proportion of the headcount from the previous year. Whilst data covering leavers became available in the year ending March 2010, data covering new joiners became available for the year to March 2017; however, 8 FRSs were unable to provide new joiner data that year and hence the new joiner figures (2,262 total staff and 1,484 firefighters) were not fully representative. It is worth noting that a staff member can both join and leave FRSs in the same year.

Figure 1.3 shows that the percentage of staff leaving and joining FRAs have been relatively stable since the earliest year for which this data is available.

Consistent high-quality data on leavers and joiners is available from the year ending March 2018 and it shows that in the year to March 2023, there were 4,299 (9.7%) leavers and 4,295 (9.7%) joiners. In 5 of the 6 years data is available for, there have been more staff leave FRSs than join. As a percentage of the staff headcount at the start of the year, the differences are very small in 5 of the 6 years, but in the year to March 2022 there was a noteworthy gap between the number of leavers (4,640 or 10.4%) and joiners (3,855 or 8.6%).

Figure 1.3: Percentage of leavers and new staff, England; year ending March 2018 to year ending March 2023

Source: FIRE1101, FIRE1110 and FIRE1120

Notes:

  1. Percentages based on the headcount figures at the start of the year.

Figure 1.4 shows the main reason staff leave FRAs varies depending on their role. 57% of wholetime firefighters (974) left FRAs due to retirement in the year ending March 2023, compared to 12% (161), 20% (27) and 16% (188) for on-call firefighters, fire control and support staff respectively. In contrast 21% of wholetime firefighters (361) left FRAs due to resignation in the year ending March 2023, compared to 70% (918), 61% (82) and 60% (711) for on-call firefighters, fire control and support staff respectively. This contrast is broadly consistent for all years that data has been collected.

Figure 1.4: Staff leaving FRS by role and reason for leaving, England; year ending March 2023

Source: FIRE1111

2. Diversity of the workforce

This section covers information on 6 personal characteristics:

  • gender
  • ethnicity
  • age
  • religion
  • sexual orientation
  • disability

The figures in this section are taken as of 31 March 2023, except the joiners’ figures which are for FRS staff who joined during the year to March 2023. All figures in this section are headcount figures (as opposed to FTE) and percentages are calculated based on declared personal characteristics (that is, excluding those who did not state a characteristic or did not have it collected by the FRS concerned).

Some changes and additions have been made to the tables, and consequently this section, to provide additional detail on the diversity by role and rank at a national level. Due to concerns with low numbers, and identification of individuals, the breakdowns are not always available by FRS.

Key results

On 31 March 2023:

  • 8.7% (2,985) of firefighters were women, compared to 8.1% (2,819) in the previous year, 5.7% (1,980) 5 years ago and 4.3% (1,755) 10 years ago - by comparison 37% of police officers in England were women
  • 8.0% (2,513) of firefighters were from an ethnic minority[footnote 5], compared to 7.4% (2,366) in the previous year, 6.7% (2,109) 5 years ago and 6.4% (2,395) 10 years ago - by comparison 8.8% of police officers in England and 25.9%[footnote 6] of the English population were from an ethnic minority
  • the average age[footnote 7] of firefighters was 41; this was 41 the year previously, 42 5 years ago and 41 10 years ago
  • experimental statistics show that 6.2% (1,456) of firefighters declared they were from ‘other religious groups’[footnote 8], compared to 5.4% (1,247) in the previous year, 5.6% (1,077) 5 years ago and 6.2% (1,089) 10 years ago - by comparison 11.9%[footnote 9] of the English population stated that they followed those religions
  • experimental statistics show that 4.3% (980) of firefighters declared as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB)[footnote 10], compared to 3.9% (872) in the previous year, 3.0% (544) 5 years ago and 2.8% (422) 10 years ago - by comparison 3.1% of the English population reported being LGB
  • experimental statistics show that 4.8% (1,236) of firefighters declared they were disabled, compared to 4.4% (1,167) in the previous year, 4.1% (1,062) 5 years ago and 2.5% (741) 10 years ago - by comparison 17.4% of the English population stated they were disabled

2.1 Gender

Since 2021, the gender category ‘other’ and from 2023 the gender category ‘unknown’ has been included in the data collection. In earlier years some FRSs would provide this information outside the returns and this data is now fully incorporated into the tables. In the percentages calculated below, the percentage of women staff is the number of women divided by the number of women, men and other. Unknown gender is not included in the denominator as per the calculations in the other personal characteristics.

The number and proportion of firefighters who are women has slowly increased from 2002 (the first year for which comparable data are available) from 1.7% (753) to 8.7% (2,985) on 31 March 2023. For comparison, the percentage of police officers in England on the same day that were women was 37%. While the percentage of firefighters who are women were clearly below levels seen in the police and the population as a whole, as figure 2.1 shows the percentage of fire control staff who are women (76%) was clearly higher and has been since this data was first collected. The figure also shows the percentage of on-call firefighters who were women was higher in 2002 than the percentage of wholetime firefighters (2.5% compared to 1.3%), this was reversed in 2010 and has been so ever since. On 31 March 2023 the percentage of wholetime firefighters who were women had reached 9.3% while it was 7.6% for on-call firefighters.

Figure 2.1: Proportion of staff who are women, England; March 2002 to March 2023

Source: FIRE1103

Notes:

  1. Only every 3 years are marked on the x axis due to space constraints.

The proportion of firefighters who were women recruited in year ending March 2023 was 13% (393), higher than the proportion of all firefighters, and therefore partly responsible for that proportion increasing. This figure is still well below levels seen in the police and the population for the percentage of women. The other reason the percentage of firefighters that are women has increased is the number of firefighters who are men (31,107) has decreased by 218 since 2022, a higher rate than for women. Similarly, 14% of apprentice firefighters on 31 March 2023 were women, 60% of apprentice fire control staff and 52% support staff were women.

Brigade Manager (the highest rank of staff) and firefighter (the lowest rank of staff) were the only ranks to show percentages of firefighters that were women higher than the all firefighter figure of 8.7%, with 10.8% and 10.5% respectively. The 5 ranks in between (Area Manager, Group Manager, Station Manager, Watch Manager and Crew Manager) showed percentages lower than 8.7%. We have seen this narrative over the past 5 years, and it should be noted that figures for higher ranks are based on relatively small numbers, so are more prone to fluctuation.

2.2 Ethnicity

In previous years, the Home Office published statistics on ‘white’ ethnicity, which included white ethnic minorities. However, recent guidance from the Government Statistical Service with regards to ethnicity harmonisation advised that ‘other white ethnicity’ should be included as an ethnic minority. Therefore, this category has been removed from the ‘white’ category and into the ‘Chinese or other ethnicity’ category, with the ‘white’ category renamed to ‘white British or Irish’ category. This has increased the ‘percentage from an ethnic minority’ compared to the statistics published in previous years. The ‘percentage from an ethnic minority’ has been calculated to follow the updated guidance for all years in the publication in 2023. These changes have been made to all years. Work continues to align with the harmonisation standard.

The number and proportion of firefighters who are from an ethnic minority has slowly increased from 2011 (the first year for which comparable data is available) from 6.0% (2,336) to 8.0% (2,513) on 31 March 2023. For comparison, the percentage of police officers in England on the same day that were from an ethnic minority was 8.8% and the equivalent figure from the 2021 Census was 26%. As figure 2.2 shows, while the percentage of all 4 roles from an ethnic minority has been on a slow upward trend, in 2023 the percentages of staff who are from an ethnic minority (9.4% for wholetime firefighters, 5.1% for on-call firefighters, 5.6% for fire control and 10.9% for support staff) were also clearly lower than the figure for the general population and have been since this data was collected.

Figure 2.2: Proportion of FRS staff and resident population (of known ethnicity) from an ethnic minority group, England; March 2011 to March 2023

Source: FIRE1104

In the year ending March 2023, ethnic minorities accounted for 11.5% of firefighters recruited, a higher proportion than for all firefighters, and therefore partly responsible for the increase in the latest year. This figure is still well below levels seen in the police and the England-wide population for the percentage of people from an ethnic minority. The other reason the percentage of firefighters that were from an ethnic minority has increased is the number of white British or Irish firefighters (29,005) has decreased by 457 since 2022, a higher percentage rate than the average. Similarly, 15.2% of apprentice firefighters, 5.4% of apprentice fire control staff and 7.4% apprentice support staff on 31 March 2023 were from an ethnic minority.

The percentage of firefighters not stating an ethnicity on 31 March 2023 was 9.6%, a figure in line with previous years. A high not stated percentage may affect the robustness of the estimates or could indicate that the value of this ethnic diversity information is not well understood or communicated within FRSs.

Firefighter (the lowest and most common rank of staff) was the only rank to show a percentage of firefighters that are from an ethnic minority (9.2%) higher than the all firefighter figure of 8.0%. The 6 ranks above (Brigade Manager, Area Manager, Group Manager, Station Manager, Watch Manager and Crew Manager) all showed percentages lower than 8.0%. We have seen this broad story over the past 5 years, and it should be noted that figures for higher ranks are based on relatively small numbers, so are prone to fluctuation.

2.3 Age

As of 31 March 2023, being aged between 36 and 45 years was the most common age category for firefighters. 34% (11,811) of firefighters were in this category. This is broadly consistent with recent times; it was 34% (11,704) in the previous year, 34% (11,869) 5 years ago and 37% (15,186) 10 years ago. For context, 20% of the working age population was aged between 35 and 44 years of age in March 2021, according to the 2021 census[footnote 11]. Aged between 36 and 45 years has been the most common age category for firefighters since 2021, it was the category between 46 and 55 for the 4 years before that and between 36 and 45 years between 2011 and 2016.

As figure 2.3 shows, on 31 March 2023 the percentage of FRS staff below the age of 25 was relatively low for all 4 roles, while the percentage of FRS staff above the age of 55 was relatively high for support staff (28%) and fire control (16%) but low for on-call firefighters (8.1%) and wholetime firefighters (3.6%). This narrative is repeated from previous years.

Figure 2.3: Proportion of staff by age category and role, England; year ending March 2023

Source: FIRE1105

2.4 Religion

These statistics are designated as experimental statistics. Data for the religion of FRS staff has been collected since 2011. The most common religions for FRS staff, like the general population, have always been Christian and ‘no religion’. 2022 was the first year more firefighters declared to have ‘no religion’ than declared to be Christian. This was also true in 2023 and the gap between the numbers of the Christian and ‘no religion’ had grown from 915 firefighters to 1,597 over the year.

The proportion of firefighters who are from other religious groups (Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh or other religions) has been broadly stable from 2011 at 6.8% (1,046) to 6.2% (1,456) in 2023. For comparison, the equivalent figure from the 2021 Census was 11.9%. As figure 2.4 shows, the percentage of fire control staff and support staff who declared that they were from other religious groups were 5.3% and 6.8% respectively in 2023. All 4 roles have shown percentages clearly lower than the percentage for the general population and they have been clearly lower since this data was collected.

Figure 2.4: Proportion of FRS staff and resident population stating other religious groups as their religion, England; March 2011 to March 2023

Source: FIRE1106

The percentage of firefighters not stating a religion (either because the FRS does not collect the information or because the staff member has opted to not state) on 31 March 2023 was 33%. This figure was 57% 10 years ago and has been on a downward trend since it was first collected in 2011. A high not stated percentage may affect the robustness of the estimates or could indicate that the value of this religious diversity information is not well understood or communicated within FRSs.

2.5 Sexual Orientation

These statistics are designated as experimental statistics. This year, as in previous years, the Home Office data collection has given the sexual orientation options of ‘bisexual’, ‘gay/lesbian’, ‘heterosexual’ or ‘sexual orientation not stated’ in our data collection. The percentage of staff who report as LGB is calculated by dividing the number of LGB staff by the sum of all stated orientations. Not stated and not collected sexual orientations are not included in the denominator. The 2021 Census has additional sexual orientation categories, which are not included in our data collection, and we shall consider including in future collections.

Data for the sexual orientation of FRS staff has been collected since 2011. The proportion of firefighters who declared as LGB was broadly stable from 2011 at 3.0% (379) to 3.4% (750) in 2021, then the past 2 years have shown increases to 3.9% in 2022 and 4.3% in 2023. For comparison, the equivalent figure from the 2021 Census was 3.1%. As figure 2.5 shows the percentage of fire control staff and support staff who report as LGB were broadly similar to firefighters, 5.5% and 3.7% respectively in 2023. These figures were either in line or slightly above with the figure for the general population and have been since this data was collected.

Figure 2.5: Proportion of FRS staff and resident population reporting as LGB, England; March 2011 to March 2023

Source: FIRE1107

The percentage of firefighters not stating a sexual orientation (either because the FRS does not collect the information or because the staff member has opted to not state) on 31 March 2023 was 34%, this figure was 63% 10 years ago and has been on a downward trend since it was first collected in 2011. A high not stated percentage may affect the robustness of the estimates or could indicate that the value of this sexual orientation diversity information is not well understood or communicated within FRSs.

2.6 Disability

These statistics are designated as experimental statistics. Data for the disability status of FRS staff has been collected since 2011. The proportion of firefighters who declared as being disabled has shown a broad upward trend from 2011 at 2.1% (662) to 4.8% (1,236) in 2023. For comparison, the equivalent figure from the 2021 Census was 17%. As figure 2.6 shows the percentages of fire control staff and support staff who report as being disabled were higher, at 8.3% and 9.7% respectively in 2023.

Figure 2.6: Proportion of FRS staff and resident population stating they are disabled, England; March 2011 to March 2023

Source: FIRE1108

The percentage of firefighters not stating a disability status (either because the FRS does not collect the information or because the staff member has opted to not state) on 31 March 2023 was 26%, this figure was 27% 10 years ago and has been broadly similar since it was first collected in 2011. A high not stated percentage may affect the robustness of the estimates or could indicate that the value of this disability diversity information is not well understood or communicated within FRSs.

3. Firefighters’ health and safety

Data is collected on injuries sustained by on-duty firefighters and whether they were sustained during operational incidents (at fires, road traffic collisions or at other special service incidents) or during training (operational or fitness) and routine activities. The collection asks for the total number of personnel injured, the number of ‘over 7-day injuries’, the number of RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) major injuries, and the number of fatalities. Shropshire did not provide information on health and safety for the year ending March 2023 - these figures are left as unavailable but the previous year’s figures have been used to compile totals, such as the England total, to ensure consistency in reporting within this release.

Key results

During the year to March 2023:

  • there were 2,424 firefighter personnel injured on duty, 5.1% more than in the previous year (2,307) but 6.3% lower than 5 years ago (2,588) and a 25% decrease compared to 10 years previously (3,228)
  • there were no firefighter fatalities on duty, there have been 3 in the past decade
  • 45 of the 2,424 firefighter personnel injured were classified as having ‘major injuries’[footnote 12] which compares to 49 in the previous year, 61 5 years ago and 74 10 years previously
  • 1,126 of the 2,424 firefighter personnel injured (46%) were injured during operational incidents, which compares to 985 (43%) in the previous year, 1,052 (41%) 5 years ago and 957 (30%) 10 years previously - all other personnel injured occurred during training or routine activities

Firefighter fatalities

The number of firefighter fatalities on duty are small, however the trend since the mid-1980s has been downwards. In the 10 years to March 1996 (the first 10 years for which consistent data is available), there were 30 such fatalities, in the most recent 10 years (to March 2023) there were 3.

Firefighter personnel injured

Figure 3.1 shows from the year to March 2003, the earliest year for which consistent data are available, the number of firefighter personnel injured was on a downward trend. This downward trend was faster in the 2000s. In the past decade, the trend has declined very slowly. The proportion of these firefighter personnel injured during operational incidents has increased over the past 10 years, from 30% 10 years ago to 46% in the year to March 2023.

Figure 3.1: Total firefighter personnel injured by activity type, England; Year ending March 2003 to year ending March 2023

Source: FIRE0508

4. Attacks on firefighters

This section summarises the number of incidents attended by FRSs in England involving an attack on firefighters. The statistics are sourced from the Home Office’s Incident Recording System (IRS). It should be noted that the IRS does not provide a complete picture of attacks on firefighters, as it only covers incidents attended by firefighters through an emergency call. It does not cover attacks occurring on training or routine activities. In addition, it provides a count of the number of incidents that involved an attack not the number of attacks, as more than one firefighter could have been attacked at one incident. The IRS only allows one option of type of attack to be coded and FRSs record the one that best describes it, so there may be an undercount of some types of attacks, and it may be possible for verbal attacks to include an injury and vice versa.

Key results

During the year to March 2023:

  • there were 1,030 incidents involving an attack on firefighters (including verbal abuse), a 4.7% increase (or an increase of 46 incidents) on the previous year
  • these incidents resulted in 76 injuries to firefighters, of which 59 were classed as slight and 17 as serious (requiring a hospital stay)
  • the majority of incidents involving an attack were categorised as verbal abuse (61%, 628 incidents)

As figure 4.1 shows the number of incidents involving an attack on firefighters reached a low of 578 incidents in the year ending March 2015. There was a rapid increase to 931 over the following 3 years. Since the year ending March 2018, the number of attacks on firefighters has fluctuated between roughly 900 and 1,000, although in the year ending March 2023 it was the highest figure (1,030) since consistent figures became available.

Figure 4.1: The number of incidents involving an attack on firefighters, England; Year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2023

Source: FIRE0510

The number of injuries sustained in these attacks are more liable to fluctuation because of the relatively small numbers involved. In the year ending March 2023, there were 76 injuries in total, 17 of these were classed as serious and 59 were classed as slight. This compares to 60 injuries (6 serious and 54 slight) in the previous year.

5. Firefighters’ pensions

This section provides income, expenditure and membership data submitted by all 44 Fire and Rescue Authorities (FRAs) in England. This includes data from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. The definitions section below explains some of the concepts, the schemes monitored and membership.

Pensioners Pensioners are firefighters who have retired from service and are in receipt of their pension benefits.

Deferred members Deferred members include those firefighters who continue in employment, but have elected to opt-out of their membership of the pension scheme, or those who have left their employment before reaching the age at which they are entitled to receive immediate payment of their pension benefits.

Regular or wholetime firefighter members Regular or wholetime firefighter members includes personnel currently serving as full-time firefighters. They are members of one of the pension schemes and pay employee contributions based on the pensionable pay that they earn.

On-call or retained firefighter members On-call or retained firefighter members are part-time personnel contracted to be available for agreed periods of time for firefighting purposes, but who may also have an alternative employment and occupational pensions elsewhere.

Pension scheme expenditure Pension scheme expenditure is the total eligible pension spend by employers in respect of their retired employees, paid directly out of their local pension fund account.

Recurring outgoing payments Recurring outgoing payments are the monthly (post-commutation) pension payments made to retired members of the pension schemes.

Commutation Payments Commutation Payments is a lump sum payable by the employer where a retiring member makes an election to convert a proportion of his/her future annual pension for a lump sum.

Transfers in and out A cash value representing a person’s pension pot may be transferred with them when they move from one pension scheme to another.

Miscellaneous Expenditure Miscellaneous Expenditure are the various minor or incidental costs associated with administering pension plans for firefighters.

Pension Scheme Income Pension Scheme Income is the cash flow paid into the local pension fund account by an employee (member of the scheme) and employer.

Pension Scheme Deficit Pension Scheme Deficit is the annual difference in total expenditure and total income of the Firefighters’ Pension Fund.

The 1992 Scheme The 1992 Scheme was introduced for regular firefighters employed before 6 April 2006, with the scheme closing to new membership on 5 April 2006.

The 2006 Scheme The 2006 Scheme was introduced for regular and on-call firefighters employed since 6 April 2006. A Modified Scheme was introduced in April 2014, in response to an Employment Tribunal decision in 2011, which required access for retained firefighters to similar benefits. Therefore, retained firefighters employed between 1 July 2000 and 5 April 2006 (inclusive) were given access to a pension arrangement with similar benefits to those of the 1992 Scheme. The data published in this release amalgamate the 2006 and Modified Scheme membership data.

The 2015 Scheme Newly recruited regular and on-call (or retained) firefighters are now only eligible to join the 2015 Scheme, which was introduced in England on 1 April 2015.

A full list of definitions available is here.

Key Results

During the financial year 2022 to 2023:

  • the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme total expenditure was around £957 million, virtually unchanged compared with the previous year (£955 million in financial year 2021 to 2022), but an 18% increase on 5 years previously (£810 million in financial year 2017 to 2018)
  • 84% of expenditure was ‘recurring outgoing payments’, 15% was ‘commutation payments’, while ‘transfers’ and ‘miscellaneous expenditure’ together totalled 1%
  • the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme total income was around £400 million, virtually unchanged compared with the previous year (£399 million in financial year 2021 to 2022) and a 55% increase on 5 years previously (£258 million in financial year 2017 to 2018)
  • employer contributions decreased by 1.7% to £261 million, from £266 million in financial year 2021 to 2022, but increased by 94% compared to £135 million in financial year 2018 to 2019, due to changes to the discount rate set by HM Treasury from April 2019
  • 65% of income was ‘employer contributions’, 31% was ‘employee contributions’ and the remaining 3.6% comprised a combination of transfers, miscellaneous income and ill-health charges
  • the Firefighters’ Pension scheme deficit was around -£556 million, virtually unchanged compared with the previous year (-£555 million in financial year 2021 to 2022) and virtually unchanged on 5 years previously (-£552 million in financial year 2017 to 2018)

5.1 Pension scheme expenditure and income

As figure 5.1 shows from the financial year 2010 to 2011, the earliest year for which comparable data is available, the firefighters’ pension scheme expenditure has been on a broad upward trend, gradually increasing from around £604 million to £957 million in 2022 to 2023. The only exception to the gradual increase was caused by a large redress payment of £89 million in financial year 2015 to 2016. The slight decrease in financial year 2017 to 2018 was followed by 2 consecutive increases to around £909 million in financial year 2019 to 2020, followed by a small decrease in financial year 2020 to 2021 to £903 million.

Figure 5.1: Firefighters’ pension scheme expenditure in England, financial year 2010 to 2011 to financial year 2022 to 2023

Source: FIRE1301

The Firefighters’ pension scheme income was broadly stable from financial year 2010 to 2011 (the first year for which comparable data is available), until financial year 2014 to 2015, at around £300 million per year. Since then, excluding the additional grant payments received by FRAs from the Government Actuary Department (GAD) following the Milne v GAD case[footnote 13] and the employee contributions holiday, income decreased gradually to a low of £257 million in financial year 2018 to 2019. However, in financial year 2019 to 2020, income increased by 51% to £388 million, mainly due to employer contributions nearly doubling to £260 million from £135 million in the previous year following changes in the discount rate set by HM Treasury from April 2019. For more information, see the House of Commons Library ‘Public service pensions - employer contributions’ briefing. As figure 5.2 shows, pension scheme income has continued to rise, reaching £400 in the financial year 2022 to 2023.

Figure 5.2: Firefighters’ pension scheme income in England, financial year 2010 to 2011 to financial 2022 to 2023

Source: FIRE1302

There were 8 consecutive years of rising deficits in the firefighters’ pension scheme between financial year 2010 to 2011 and financial year 2018 to 2019, due to the general trend of increasing expenditure and decreasing income. However, in financial year 2019 to 2020, a nearly doubled employer contribution reversed this trend, resulting in the first deficit reduction since comparable data became available. This trend continued in financial year 2020 to 2021, although at a slower rate. Since then, the firefighters’ pension scheme deficit has increased due to the large increases in expenditure.

5.2 Pension scheme membership

The data refers to 2016 to 2023 only. This is due to a change in the way Firefighters’ Pension Fund (FPF) forms collected data on membership, which means that data is not directly comparable with previous years.

As of 31 March 2023:

  • there were 43,556 pensioner members and of these 81% (35,389) were members who have retired and were in receipt of benefits from the 1992 Scheme
  • 12% of members were in the 2015 Scheme, an increase from the 20% of members who were part of the 2015 scheme in the previous year
  • there were 10,927 deferred members, of which 17% were still employed as a firefighter

There were 23,748 active regular members of firefighter pension schemes, of which 98% (23,276) belonged to the 2015 Scheme. Similarly, 99% of the 8,271 active, retained members belonged to the 2015 Scheme. The majority of members are in the 2015 Scheme, which is due to the transition of 1992 and 2006 Scheme members to the 2015 Scheme on 1 April 2015.

The Home Office is no longer collecting information on pension scheme membership opt-outs. For the most recent figures on these, please see Fire and rescue workforce and pensions statistics: England, April 2017 to March 2018.

Further information on fire pension scheme membership can be found in fire data tables FIRE1304 and FIRE1305 (where FIRE1305 is no longer updated).

6. Summary of changes over time

Table 6.1: FRS workforce totals (FTE), comparing the year ending March 2023 with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Role Year ending March 2023 Year ending March 2022 1-year change Year ending March 2018 5-year change Year ending March 2013 10-year change
All staff 39,500 39,512 0% 40,077 -1.4% 47,011 -16%
Total firefighters 30,723 31,034 -1% 32,002 -4% 38,273 -20%
Wholetime firefighters 22,626 22,645 -0.1% 22,580 0.2% 27,185 -17%
On-call firefighters 8,097 8,389 -3.5% 9,422 -14% 11,088 -27%
Fire control 1,068 1,087 -1.7% 1,061 0.7% 1,319 -19%
Support staff 7,709 7,391 4.3% 7,014 9.9% 7,419 3.9%

Table 6.2: Firefighter diversity, comparing the year ending March 2023 with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Diversity Characteristic Year ending March 2023 Year ending March 2022 1-year change Year ending March 2018 5-year change Year ending March 2013 10-year change
Women 8.7% 8.1% 0.7pp 5.7% 3.1pp 4.3% 4.4pp
Ethnic minority group 8% 7.4% 0.5pp 6.7% 1.3pp 6.4% 1.6pp
Other religious groups 6.2% 5.4% 0.8pp 5.6% 0.6pp 6.2% -0.1pp
LGB 4.3% 3.9% 0.4pp 3% 1.2pp 2.8% 1.5pp

Notes:

  1. pp in this instance means percentage points.

Table 6.3: Fire Pensions, comparing the year ending March 2023 with 1, 5 and 10 years previously (in £ million)

Financial Component 2022/23 2021/22 1-year change 2017/18 5-year change 2012/13 10-year change
Income 400 399 0.3% 258 55% 297 35%
Expenditure 957 955 0.2% 810 18% 667 43%
Surplus/deficit -557 -556 0.2% -552 0.9% -370 51%

Notes:

  1. In ‘surplus/deficit’ row “+” refers to surplus and “-“ refers to deficit.

Source: Fire statistics data tables

7. Further information

This release contains administrative statistics about workforce and pensions for Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) in England. This release also contains statistics from the Home Office’s online Incident Recording System (IRS) for incidents attended by FRSs where there were attacks on firefighters.

Fire and rescue incident statistics and other Home Office statistical releases are available from the Statistics at Home Office pages on the GOV.UK website.

Data tables linked to this release and all other fire statistics releases can be found on the Home Office’s Fire statistics data tables page. The most relevant tables for each topic are signposted at the end of each section in this release.

Guidance for using these statistics and other fire statistics outputs is available on the fire statistics collection page.

The information published in this release is kept under review, taking into account the needs of users and burdens on suppliers and producers, in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics. If you have any comments, suggestions or enquiries, please contact the team via email using firestatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk.

Experimental statistics

Statistics on religion, sexual orientation and disability are included as experimental statistics due to some quality limitations and other issues which users should be aware of, for example:

  • some FRSs do not collect this data
  • the data contains a relatively high proportion of ‘not stated’ entries; the proportion varies significantly across different FRSs, 31% of data for religion, 32% of data for sexual orientation and 24% for disability is either not collected or not stated in 2023 (hence the figures may not be fully representative of FRSs as a whole)

The statistics serve a public good in understanding the diversity of the FRS workforce but given the current quality limitations they are published as ‘experimental statistics’. Experimental statistics are statistics which are published in order to involve users and stakeholders in their development and as a means to build in quality at an early stage. Statisticians have been working, and will continue to work with the FRSs who do not collect this data and with those with the highest proportions of ‘not stated’ to try to improve the data.

Revisions

The figures in this release refer to activity that occurred in the financial year 2022 to 2023, the year up to and including 31 March 2023. The statistics published may not match those held locally by FRSs and revisions may occur in the future.

The analysis of attacks on firefighters, which uses data from the IRS, is based on records of incidents that occurred up to and including the end of March 2023. This includes incident records that were submitted to the IRS by 23 May 2023, when a snapshot of the database was taken for the purpose of analysis. As a snapshot of the database was taken, the statistics published may not match those held locally by FRSs, and revisions may occur in future.

Home Office publish 5 other statistical releases covering Fire and Rescue Services.

These include:

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities also publish statistical releases on fire

These include:

  • the English Housing Survey: fire and fire safety report, which focuses on the extent to which the existence of fire and fire safety features vary by household and dwelling type and this report focuses on whether people felt safe from fire in their homes, by household and dwelling type

Fire statistics are published by the other UK nations:

Scottish fire statistics and Welsh fire statistics are published based on the IRS; Fire statistics for Northern Ireland are published by the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service using data from a system similar to the Incident Recording System, which means that they are not directly comparable to English, Welsh and Scottish data.

  1. Full time equivalent (FTE) is the stronger measure of total staff as it accounts for level of part time staff. A member of staff working full time would be considered as 1 in FTE, a member of staff working 80% of full time hours would be considered as 0.8 in FTE. Headcount measures purely the number of staff. ↩

  2. Taken from Police Workforce statistics, it should be remembered that the headline figures in the Police release are for England and Wales, whereas the figures in this release are for just England. ↩

  3. Gender data for England is taken from the 2011 and 2021 Censuses. ↩

  4. Headcount is a simple measure of the number of staff, not accounting for whether staff are full or part time. In our statistics, headcount is used when collecting diversity data ↩

  5. In previous years, the Home Office published statistics on ‘white’ ethnicity, which included white ethnic minorities. However, recent guidance from the Government Statistical Service with regards to ethnicity harmonisation advised that ‘other white ethnicity’ should be included as an ethnic minority. Therefore, this category has been removed from the ‘white’ category and into the ‘Chinese or other ethnicity’ category, with the ‘white’ category renamed to ‘white British or Irish’ category. This has increased the ‘percentage from an ethnic minority’ compared to the statistics published in previous years. The ‘percentage from an ethnic minority’ has been calculated to follow the updated guidance for all years in the publication in 2023. ↩

  6. The source for this is the 2021 Census. ↩

  7. This figure is indicative. It is calculated using average ages for each age band collected and therefore should be used with caution. ↩

  8. ‘Other religious groups’ are any religion that is not Christian or ‘no religion’. This would include Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and other religions and follows the categorisation used by the Office for National Statistics for the 2021 Census. ↩

  9. The source for this is the 2021 Census. ↩

  10. The source for this is the 2021 Census, the Home Office only collect LGB information but aim to collect a wider range of sexual orientation information in the future. ↩

  11. See 2021 census data by age bands here - Population and household estimates, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) ↩

  12. Reportable major injuries are: fracture other than to fingers, thumbs or toes; amputation; dislocation of the shoulder, hip, knee or spine; loss of sight (temporary or permanent); chemical or hot metal burn to the eye or any penetrating injury to the eye; injury resulting from an electric shock or electrical burn leading to unconsciousness or requiring resuscitation or admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours; any other injury: leading to hypothermia, heat-induced illness or unconsciousness; or requiring resuscitation; or requiring admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours; unconsciousness caused by asphyxia or exposure to harmful substance or biological agent; acute illness requiring medical treatment, or loss of consciousness arising from absorption of any substance by inhalation, ingestion or through the skin; acute illness requiring medical treatment where there is reason to believe that this resulted from exposure to a biological agent or its toxins or infected material. ↩

  13. For further information on the Milne v GAD case see Firefighters’ pension scheme: additional payments in respect of past commutations ↩

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