Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Fire Safety and Organisational Statistics, Scotland, 2013-14

2. Main Points

Fire Safety - Home Fire Safety Visits (HFSVs)

• The SFRS carried out around 71,000 HFSVs in 2013-14, an increase of 26 per cent on the previous year (around 56,000 visits in 2012-13). This demonstrates a rise in SFRS activity in this area following relatively little change in the three previous years (Table 1).
• The overall increase in HFSVs reflects a rise of 36 per cent in "advice only" visits (from around 30,000 in 2012-13 to 41,000 in 2013-14) and a smaller, 13 per cent increase in visits where smoke alarms were installed (from around 26,000 in 2012-13 to 30,000 in 2013-14 (Table 1).
• Two in every five HFSVs in 2013-14 were to homes with an "above" or "well above" average risk level (around 28,000 visits or 40 per cent of the total). This is around the same proportion as two years earlier, but 9 percentage points lower than in 2012-13 (Table 2a).

Workforce

• On 31 March 2014 there were 8,484 members of SFRS staff, a decrease of five per cent (480 staff) on the previous year. This compares to a decrease of one per cent (76 staff members) in the year to 31 March 2013 (Table 6a).
• The number of wholetime operational and Retained Duty System (RDS) staff decreased by 4 per cent (150 and 136 staff members respectively) in the year to 31 March 2014. The number of support staff decreased by 12 per cent (125 staff). These three staff types accounted for 86 per cent of the overall decrease in headcount compared to the previous year (Table 6a).
• For every ten SFRS staff members, nine were male and one was female, the same gender split as at 31 March 2013. Around 95 per cent of wholetime operational and RDS staff were male (3,842 and 2,762 staff respectively), whereas almost 90 per cent of control staff were female (199 staff) (Table 9).
• Of the four age categories the largest proportion of SFRS staff were aged 40-49 years (43 per cent or 3,610 staff members). A further 26 per cent (2,223) were aged 30-39, 21 per cent (1,756) were 50 and over and a final 11 per cent (895) were under 30 years old (Table 13).
• SFRS staff in a non-firefighting capacity tended to be older than those in fire-fighting roles. A higher proportion of control and support staff were aged 50 or over (44 and 40 per cent respectively) than staff in fire-fighting roles. For wholetime operational, RDS and volunteer staff, the age range with the highest proportion of staff was the 40-49 age range (Table 13).
• Less than one per cent of SFRS staff were recorded as belonging to an ethnic minority group, as has been the case in each of the last five years (Table 15).

Attacks on Fire and Rescue Personnel

• In 2013-14 there were 69 incidents at which attacks on SFRS personnel occurred, a decrease of 12 incidents from the previous year. The number of personnel injured in attacks at incidents also decreased from four to two (Table 17).