Fire and rescue workforce and pensions statistics: England, April 2020 to March 2021
Includes information on total workforce numbers, workforce diversity, leavers and joiners, apprentices, firefighter injuries, attacks on firefighters, firefighters’ pension fund income and expenditure and firefighters’ pension schemes membership.
21st October 2021 – First published.
5th November 2021 – Republished with corrections.
Changes made to the Key Results summary section
Footnote 1 amended from:
‘This figure excludes 9 on-call firefighters for which gender data was not captured.’
To:
‘This figure excludes 117 firefighters whose gender is unknown.’
Gender related text amended from:
‘As at 31 March 2021, 7.5 per cent (2,640) of firefighters were women’
To:
‘As at 31 March 2021, 7.5 per cent (2,640) of firefighters of known gender were women’
Amendments made to the Firefighters by gender donut chart.
Total firefighters amended from 35,270 to 35,162.
Firefighters of Other gender amended from 123 to 15, corresponding percentage amended from 0.3% to 0%.
Changes made to the Workforce Diversity section
Ethnicity related
Changed from:
As at 31 March 2021:
5.2 per cent (1,676) of firefighters employed by FRAs who stated their ethnicity were from an ethnic minority.
To:
As at 31 March 2021:
4.7 per cent (1,514) of firefighters employed by FRAs who stated their ethnicity were from an ethnic minority.
Changed from:
All FRSs collect and provide ethnicity information to the Home Office, however, 3,875 staff (8.7%) did not state an ethnicity in 2021.
To:
All FRSs collect and provide ethnicity information to the Home Office, however, 4,037 staff (9.0%) did not state an ethnicity in 2021.
Changed from:
Overall, at 31 March 2021, 5.7 per cent (2,316) of all FRS staff of known ethnicity were from an ethnic minority group
To:
Overall, at 31 March 2021, 5.3 per cent (2,154) of all FRS staff of known ethnicity were from an ethnic minority group
Changed from:
The proportion of firefighters that were from an ethnic minority group[footnote 3] has increased slowly from 3.5 per cent in 2011 (from when consistent data are available) to 5.2 per cent in 2021.
To:
The proportion of firefighters that were from an ethnic minority group[footnote 3] has increased slowly from 3.5 per cent in 2011 (from when consistent data are available) to 4.7 per cent in 2021.
Changes to figures displayed in Figure 2.4:
Ethic minority figures – 5.2% changed to 4.7% and 1,676 changed to 1,514
Total firefighter figure – 32,202 changed to 32,040
White figure – 94.8% changed to 95.3%
Changed from:
From 2019 onwards, however, the main reason has been due to an increase in the number of firefighters from an ethnic minority group (up by 75 in 2019, 41 in 2020 and 266 in 2021) as opposed to a decrease in the number of white firefighters.
To:
From 2019 onwards, however, the main reason has been due to an increase in the number of firefighters from an ethnic minority group (up by 75 in 2019, 41 in 2020 and 104 in 2021) as opposed to a decrease in the number of white firefighters.
Gender related
Changed from:
17.9 per cent of all staff employed by FRAs were women as at 31 March 2021.
To:
18.0 per cent of all staff employed by FRAs were women as at 31 March 2021.
Minor change to figure 2.1. The ‘Other’ segment of the 2021 stacked bar is now smaller. Change may not be visible in chart due to small numbers involved.
Minor changes to the absolute numbers in figure 2.2. No changes to the percentages.
Women FRA staff changed from 7,986 to 7,983.
Women support staff changed from 4,461 to 4,458.
Men FRA staff changed from 36,440 to 36,453.
Men support staff changed from 3,654 to 3,667.
Minor changes to the absolute numbers that underpin figure 2.3. Change may not be visible in chart due to small numbers involved.
Changed from:
As at 31 March 2021 there were 151 total staff that reported their gender as other, this included 123 firefighters.
To:
As at 31 March 2021 there were 18 total staff that reported their gender as other, this included 15 firefighters.
This release covers total workforce numbers, workforce diversity, leavers and joiners, apprentices, firefighter injuries, attacks on firefighters, firefighters’ pension fund income & expenditure and firefighters’ pension schemes membership.