Attacks on fire crews – from physical abuse to missiles thrown to verbal abuse – continue to be a significant hazard in the fire service. There are few signs of improvement in recent years.

Official figures on attacks on firefighters are woefully inadequate. In England and Wales, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) claim that attacks have fallen from 1,300 in 2005-06 to 400 in 2006-07 is false. Figures in Scotland have recorded on
average over 300 attacks a year for four years. Figures for Northern Ireland are not collected in the same way as the rest of the UK.

New figures collected from every fire and rescue service in the UK under the Freedom of Information Act suggest that officially there are more than 2,000 attacks on fire crews every year, over 40 a week or six a day. However under-reporting is rife and FBU representatives estimate that the figure is at least twice as high – and quite possibly far higher than that.

The DCLG does not have a coherent national strategy for reducing attacks on fire crews. It does not publish its figures for England and Wales. Its guidance is cursory and in places, contradictory. It appears to put few resources into tackling the problem centrally or providing support for local fire and rescue services.

This contrasts with other departments and government bodies such as the NHS and the Health and Safety Executive, where centrally-driven initiatives to tackle violence at work are taken more seriously.

Some fire and rescue services have good policies for tackling violence towards all fire service personnel, which utilise the well-established health and safety approach of risk assessment and the deployment of prevention and control measures. However other authorities continue to deal with the issue under civil disturbance procedures.

There are many effective community, youth and education programmes run by fire and rescue services, which have integrated the issue of attacks on fire crews into their schemes of work and teaching strategies. These programmes offer the best long-term strategy for preventing attacks from taking place.

There are few public awareness or media campaigns that challenge attacks on firefighters, although examples of good practice (such as in Northern Ireland) do exist.

Firefighters are unhappy with the speed and quality of police responses when they are under attack, including the deployment of community support officers in place of fully trained officers with the powers of arrest.

Firefighters and FBU representatives are keen to maintain the neutrality of their profession from law enforcement and are unhappy with police riding in appliances.

This research found little evidence that Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) is an effective deterrent against attacks on firefighters. Many firefighters and FBU representatives said it undermined their efforts to foster better relations with the communities they serve.

The current technical limitations of CCTV have meant that most camera footage is unsuitable for prosecutions. There are a range of reporting systems in operation in fire and rescue services, making consistent data collection and analysis difficult. Although authorities generally encourage reporting, some systems are too
cumbersome and time-consuming to achieve the desired result.

Only a few fire and rescue services comprehensively train their staff about tackling violence at work.

Key recommendations

The DCLG should develop a coherent national strategy to tackle attacks on fire crews, in consultation with the FBU and senior fire officers. It should include adequate reporting and collection methods and the production
of comprehensive good practice guidance, backed by resources to help fire and rescue services implement local initiatives.

Fire and rescue services should develop separate “Violence at Work” policies that follow the health and safety approach of risk assessment, prevention and control, with built in monitoring and review involving fire service personnel and their representatives.

The DCLG and fire and rescue services should ensure that adequate funding streams are available for community youth and education programmes, and that these programmes tackle the issue of attacks as an integral part of these programmes.

The DCLG and fire and rescue services should run public awareness campaigns using the media and other channels to highlight the consequences of attacks on fire crews.

Fire and rescue services should introduce a
moratorium on the use of CCTV until its implications have been thoroughly researched.

Fire and rescue services should assess their premises, appliances (including small vehicles) and equipment with regard to the risk of attacks on fire crews.

The DCLG and fire and rescue services should develop straightforward and easy to use reporting systems to fully measure the scale of attacks and their severity.

Fire and rescue services should train all fire service personnel on the issue of violence, during induction and as part of later training programmes.

Fire and rescue services should ensure that all fire service personnel that suffer an injury following an attack are not penalised further in terms of their pay and conditions.

Fire authorities should have adequate rehabilitation arrangements in place for firefighters injured as a result of attacks by members of the public.