Government plans to shut every 999 fire service emergency control room in England and move to only 9 regional controls by 2009 should be halted immediately, says the Fire Brigades Unions. The call comes after a Parliamentary Answer showed the number of 999 calls regional controls could handle at the busiest times would be disastrously low.

FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack said: “We are stunned by how few 999 emergency calls a regional control could handle in a busy period. Only one regional control outside London could handle more than 200 calls an hour and most far less than this.

“Many single brigade controls have to handle this number on their own during busy periods in their own fire service area. Yet these regional controls are meant to handle the work done by up to 9 existing control rooms across vast regions.

“These figures will send a shudder down the spine of anyone who has any understanding of the real life strains being placed on the fire service. They have not just got this disastrously wrong, this is bordering on criminally wrong.

“In normal conditions handling this number of calls across a region might be just about adequate. But many times in the last year local fire controls have had to cope with higher volumes than this on their own, never mind across a region.

“These new controls are meant to be better at handling major incidents. On these figures only one major incident could swamp a regional control room in minutes.

“The fire service plans to be able to deal with three major incidents at the same time. The regional controls – on these figures – would simply collapse.

“In recent weeks severe weather has hit several regions at the same time. With only a single control for each region every one would have hit capacity quickly with no ability to take overflow calls from others.

“Regional controls might be able to deal with the desktop scenarios dreamt up by management consultants, but not with real life. Not only will they not make things better, on these figures they will be much worse when the public need them most.

“The Government is trying to run 999 emergency command and control rooms like call centres. The public don’t want to be on hold listening to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as the smoke is flowing into the room.

“The Government seems determined to press ahead with these plans. For the sake of firefighters and the public they must stop now and re-assess, because these figures show it will not work.”

***ENDS***

Contact:

Sharon Eames 07889 088423

Press office 0208 541 1765

McDonnell, J  - Firefighting

House of Commons - Written Answer

Summary
The following question was answered on 02 February 2007.

Contents
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the (a) typical or average hourly call handling capacity and (b) maximum hourly call handling capacity is expected to be of each of the regional control centres proposed under the FiReControl project. [111173]

Angela E. Smith: The regional control centres are designed to meet or exceed the current Chief Fire Officer's Association (CFOA) performance targets for call handling. These are:

85 per cent. of calls answered within 7 seconds;

95 per cent. of calls answered within 10 seconds;

98 per cent. of calls answered within 20 seconds.

The capacity of each RCC depends on the number of staff and the shift pattern at any given time. Based on the current indicative staffing numbers and shift patterns, the call handling capacity of each RCC is shown in the following table:

| Call capacity of regional control centres |

|  | 08:00-16:00 | 16:00-20:00 | 20:00-23:00 | 23:00-08:00 | 24 hours | Annual |

| London |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| Hourly | 240 | 300 | 210 | 150 | — | — |

| Period total | 1,920 | 1,200 | 630 | 1,350 | 5,100 | 1938150 |

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| South East |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| Hourly | 150 | 195 | 150 | 105 | — | — |

| Period total | 1,200 | 780 | 450 | 945 | 3,375 | 1,286,625 |

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| South West |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| Hourly | 135 | 165 | 135 | 105 | — | — |

| Period total | 1,080 | 660 | 405 | 945 | 6,090 | 1,127,850 |

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| East of England |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| Hourly | 135 | 165 | 135 | 105 | — | — |

| Period total | 1,080 | 660 | 405 | 945 | 3,090 | 1,127,850 |

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| East Midlands |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| Hourly | 135 | 165 | 135 | 105 | — | — |

| Period total | 1,080 | 660 | 405 | 945 | 3,090 | 1,127,850 |

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| West Midlands |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| Hourly | 150 | 195 | 165 | 120 | — | — |

| Period total | 1,200 | 780 | 495 | 1,080 | 3,555 | 1,297,575 |

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| Yorks and Humber |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| Hourly | 150 | 195 | 165 | 120 | — | — |

| Period total | 1,200 | 780 | 495 | 1,080 | 3,555 | 1,97,575 |

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| North East |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| Hourly | 120 | 150 | 135 | 105 | — | — |

| Period total | 960 | 600 | 405 | 945 | 2,910 | 1,062,150 |

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| North West |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| Hourly | 225 | 285 | 195 | 135 | — | — |

| Period total | 1,800 | 1,140 | 585 | 1,215 | 4,740 | 1,730,100 |

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| Network |  |  |  |  |  |  |

| Hourly | 1,440 | 1,815 | 1,425 | 1,050 | — | — |

| Period total | 11,520 | 7,260 | 4,275 | 9,450 | 32,505 | 11,864,325 |

| Notes: 1. These figures do not represent the projected requirement. 2. Assumes that a person working a 12 hour shift has the capacity to answer calls for nine of 12 hours. 3. Assumes an average call handling time of three minutes per call (taking account of all call types—emergency, administrative and additional assistance calls).