Justice Analytical Services - safer communities and justice statistics monthly data report: August 2022 edition

Further detail on fire statistics

There were 221 deliberate building fires in quarter 4 of 2021-22, up from 207 in the same quarter of 2020-21. Over the same period, the number of deliberate road vehicle fires rose from 177 to 197. There has been a long-term downward trend in deliberate building and deliberate road vehicle fires since this series began.

The figures used in this chart are the average of the quarter in question and the three quarters prior, in order to allow for seasonal variation.

Unwanted fire alarm signals (UFAS) describe potentially avoidable false alarm signals from a workplace, either from an automatic fire alarm or from a person. There were 6,955 UFAS incidents in quarter 4 of 2021-22, which made up 32% of all incidents attended in that quarter. This was up from 29% of all incidents attended in the equivalent quarter of 2020-21. The Covid-19 pandemic could have influenced the previous year's figures as most offices were closed and homeworking was encouraged. This meant that less people were in workplace buildings and so there was less opportunity for an unwanted signal to be triggered.