Official Statistics

Non-fire incidents: no action/ advice incidents guidance

Updated 22 July 2026

Applies to England

Publishing fire and rescue incident level data:

No Action/Advice Incidents Dataset Guidance

Frequency of release: Annual

First publication: 22 July 2026

Latest update: 22 July 2026

Forthcoming releases: Fire statistics release calendar

Responsible statistician: Taseen Uddin

Media enquiries: newsdesk@communities.gov.uk

Public enquiries: firestatistics@communities.gov.uk

1. Background

Data Quality

Fire data were collected by the Incident Recording System (IRS) until November 2025. Since November 2025, fire data has been collected by the Fire and Rescue Data Platform (FaRDaP) and includes statistics on all incidents, fire-related fatalities, non-fatal casualties from fires and response times to fires.

Incident records held within the Fire and Rescue Data Platform (FaRDaP) are the responsibility of and quality assured by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs). The Department and FRSs work together to improve the data within FaRDaP and minimise any inconsistencies or errors. However, as the data were not originally collected for record-level publication purposes, a very small number of previously unidentified inconsistencies may remain (see project overview for further detail).

Incident records are a judgement call of the lead fire officer at the time of the incident. The quality of the information provided by fire and rescue services is variable and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed, especially at a record level, for instance some records involve estimation by those in attendance.

Dataset rationale

The Department has received requests from users of non-fire incident level datasets to complete the suite of non-fire incident publications.

This dataset covers incidents where Fire and Rescue Services attended an incident but the outcome was categorised as advice only, stand by, or no action (not false alarm). Publishing this dataset provides transparency regarding incidents where an attendance occurred but no operational intervention was ultimately required.

The Department has, and will continue to, engage with stakeholders such as statistical users and FRSs, to gauge opinion on the most useful datasets to publish.

Dataset definition

The no action/advice incidents dataset covers non-fire incidents attended by FRSs in England that they defined as:

• Advice only

• Stand by

• No action (not false alarm)

The Department only has jurisdiction for fire policy in England and therefore has published incident data for England only.

The data in this dataset are consistent with records that reached the Fire and Rescue Data Platform (FaRDaP) by 1 May 2026.

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2. Variable by variable - scene setting

Variable Name: FRS_NAME 

Variable Description: The FRS in which the incident took place 

IRS Question: 1.6

The Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) refers to the territory in which the incident took place, not necessarily the FRS which responded. Occasionally an FRS will respond to an incident “over the border”, because of this, users should be careful about making general comments about particular FRSs as some incidents may have been attended by other FRSs. This dataset only covers incidents that took place in England.

Due to data protection issues we have merged Isles of Scilly data with Cornwall. Figures for Dorset and Wiltshire, who merged into one FRS on 1 April 2016, and Hampshire and Isle of Wight, who merged into one FRS on 1 April 2021, are presented merged.

Variable Name: E_CODE 

Variable Description: The E Code of the FRS 

IRS Question: 1.6 (based on)

The standard National Statistics code (E Code) of the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) in FRS_NAME.

Variable Name: FINANCIAL_YEAR 

Variable Description: The financial year the incident took place 

IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

A financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March. Incidents are allocated to financial year depending on the time of the call, which is usually collected through automatic systems.

Variable Name: CALENDAR_YEAR 

Variable Description: The calendar year the incident took place 

IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

A calendar year runs from 1 January to 31 December. Incidents are allocated to calendar year depending on the time of the call, which is usually collected through automatic systems.

Variable Name: MONTH_NAME 

Variable Description: The month the incident took place 

IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

The month the incident took place. This would return “December” for 25 December 2025.

Variable Name: MONTH_CODE 

Variable Description: A code to help users analyse data 

IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

Because the month variable is not in chronological order when sorted, this code has been added. Month 1 is January, month 2 is February and so on.

Variable Name: DAY_OF_WEEK 

Variable Description: The day of the week the incident took place 

IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

The day of the week (e.g. Monday) the incident took place.

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3. Variable by variable - situation

Variable Name: INCIDENT_LOCATION_TYPE 

Variable Description: The type of location the incident occurred in 

IRS Question: 3.2

Incidents are categorised into one of four following locations:

• Dwelling

• Other building

• Road vehicle

• Outdoors

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4. Variable by variable - the incident

Variable Name: NO_ACTION_ADVICE_TYPE 

Variable Description: The type of incident 

IRS Question: 3.3

Incidents are categorised into one of the following no action/advice incident types:

• Advice only

• Stand by

• No action (not false alarm)

Variable Name: NO_ACTION_ADVICE_SUBTYPE 

Variable Description: The detailed type of incident 

IRS Question: 3.3

Incidents are categorised into lower-level non-fire incident types that correspond to their high-level incident type. These provide additional information on the circumstances and nature of the incident.

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5. Variable by Variable - resourcing

Variable Name: VEHICLES 

Variable Description: The number of fire service vehicles that attended the incident 

IRS Question: 6.2

The total number of FRS vehicles that attended the incident. This includes all types of vehicle, for example hazardous materials units, fire boats and canteen vans would be included in this total.

Variable Name: VEHICLES_CODE 

Variable Description: A code to help users analyse data 

IRS Question: 6.2

Because some of the options in the vehicles variable contains letters, this code has been added after feedback from users to aid analysis. 99 is used for “Not known”.

Variable Name: PERSONNEL 

Variable Description: The number of fire crew and officers that attended the incident 

IRS Question: Combination of 6.1 and 6.4

The number of FRS personnel that attended the incident on fire service appliances or by other means (e.g. their own vehicle, on foot).

Variable Name: PERSONNEL_CODE 

Variable Description: A code to help users analyse data 

IRS Question: Combination of 6.1 and 6.4

Because some of the options in the personnel variable contains letters, this code has been added after feedback from users to aid analysis. 99 is used for “Not known”.

Variable Name: RESPONSE_TIME 

Variable Description: The time between the call being made and the first fire service vehicle attending the scene 

IRS Question: Combination of 2.1 and 6.8

The time of the call is defined as when first call was received to Command & Control. If the call was received by one FRS and relayed to another, then the time of the call to the first FRS is used.

Variable Name: RESPONSE_TIME_CODE 

Variable Description: A code to help users analyse data 

IRS Question: Combination of 2.1 and 6.8

Because all of the options in the response time variable contains letters, this code has been added after feedback from users to aid analysis. 99 is used for “Not known”.

Variable Name: TIME_AT_SCENE 

Variable Description: The time between the first fire service vehicle attending the scene and the incident being closed 

IRS Question: Combination of 6.8 and 2.6

An incident is closed when the last FRS appliance, vehicle or officer left the scene of the incident.

Variable Name: TIME_AT_SCENE_CODE 

Variable Description: A code to help users analyse data 

IRS Question: Combination of 6.8 and 2.6

Because all of the options in the time at scene variable contains letters, this code has been added after feedback from users to aid analysis.

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6. Variable by Variable - outcomes

Variable Name: FATALITY_CASUALTY 

Variable Description: Whether the incident involved a fatality or casualty 

IRS Question: Combination of 9.6 and 9.21

This records whether the incident involved at least one fatality or one casualty from the incident. Due to data protection considerations no more detailed information on casualties and fatalities is given.

To be consistent with published statistics, the variable combines all fatalities and all non-fatal casualties. Casualties include those with injuries requiring hospital attention, those requiring first aid at the scene and those given advice to have precautionary checks (whether they then take that advice or not).

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