NFRS 2024 03 - Staffing
You asked for
We are collecting information about the number of staff employed by fire and rescue services. Below is the information we would like to obtain from you under the Freedom of Information Act.
Specifically, we would like to know how many (a) wholetime firefighter, (b) retained firefighter, (c) fire control room, (d) support staff and (e) total staff there were employed in your Fire and Rescue Service, measured by headcount, on 31 March 2023 and 31 March 2024.
We also request the (f) number of wholetime firefighters employed by your fire and rescue service as of 31 March 2023 and 31 March 2024 (headcount) that also work a retained contract, and therefore could be described as “wholetime-retained”. To clarify, we only request the number of wholetime firefighters with an additional retained contract – we are not asking whether it is with your own or another fire and rescue service.
We would appreciate a table for the respective years detailing the data in the following format:
- How many people were employed by the fire and rescue service (headcount) inthe following roles on 31 March 2023:
Staff Type Headcount Wholetime Retained Control Support Total Wholetime-retained - How many people were employed by the fire and rescue service (headcount) inthe following roles on 31 March 2024:
Staff Type Headcount Wholetime Retained Control Support Total Wholetime-retained
Please note this is the same criteria used for reporting to governments.
Our Response
Answer: - The information requested is exempt by virtue of sections 21 (Information accessible to applicant by other means) and 22 (Information intended for future publication).
21. Information accessible to applicant by other means.
- Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise than under section 1 is exempt information.
- (2)For the purposes of subsection (1)—
- Information may be reasonably accessible to the applicant even though it is accessibleonly on payment, and
- Information is to be taken to be reasonably accessible to the applicant if it is information which the public authority or any other person is obliged by or under any enactment to communicate (otherwise than by making the information available for inspection) tomembers of the public on request, whether free of charge or on payment.
- For the purposes of subsection (1), information which is held by a public authority and does not fall within subsection (2)(b) is not to be regarded as reasonably accessible to the applicant merely because the information is available from the public authority itself onrequest, unless the information is made available in accordance with the authority’s publication scheme and any payment required is specified in, or determined in accordancewith, the scheme.
Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is categorised as an Absolute and Class Based type exemption and therefore does not require a public interest test to be carried out nor must Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service articulate the harm in disclosure.
The information requested for April 2022 – March 2023 can be accessed at the following location. Fire statistics data tables
22.Information intended for future publication.
- Information is exempt information if—
- the information is held by the public authority with a view to its publication, bythe authority or any other person, at some future date (whether determined ornot),
- the information was already held with a view to such publication at the timewhen the request for information was made, and
- it is reasonable in all the circumstances that the information should be withheldfrom disclosure until the date referred to in paragraph (a).
- The duty to confirm or deny does not arise if, or to the extent that, compliance withsection 1(1)(a) would involve the disclosure of any information (whether or not alreadyrecorded) which falls within subsection (1).
Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is categorised as a Qualified and Class Based type exemption and therefore does requires a public interest test be carried out but does not require Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service articulate the harm in disclosure.
Public Interest Test
In favour of disclosure: Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service acknowledges that disclosure would help it demonstrate its commitment to the principle of accountability and transparency as well as empowering individuals to analyse and question the level of resources available to it, in this case its workforce. Bringing greater scrutiny to decision-making activities of the public service.
In favour of non-disclosure: The requested information is routinely published at Fire statistics data tables and as stated by the applicant under the same criteria they wish to receive the data in. There is no pressing public interest in disclosing the withheld information early and before it has been fully completed. The public interest in transparency and compliance with the legislation is achieved by the publication of workforce data on the UK government website.
There is a stronger public interest in the information being released in its complete form so as to aid the public's understanding to avoid unnecessary questions being raised and to avoid unhelpful speculation and confusion.
It would be burdensome to take staff away from their normal day to day roles to provide this information in a raw and unaudited form when it is due for eventual publication in any event.
Balance of arguments: Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service acknowledges that disclosure would help it demonstrate its commitment to the principle of accountability and transparency. However, It considers that the public interest is best served by maintaining its current practise of submitting its workforce data for publication via the government website Fire statistics data tables once all the data has been collated.
It is believed that responding to individual requests for the information and attending to the consequences of premature disclosure would also unreasonably impact on the public authority’s resources in that it would cause disproportionate diversion.
Having considered all the arguments for and against disclosure, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service is satisfied that there are stronger public interest arguments in favour of maintaining the exemption than those which favour releasing the withheld information.