Fire service told there is 'still work to do' to improve safety and 999 response times

Lewis Clarke
·3-min read
Avon Fire And Rescue Service Logo On Fire Engine
-Credit: (Image: Copyright Unknown)


Avon Fire and Rescue Service is making ‘good progress’ in addressing issues over its information to protect firefighters but there is ‘still work to do’.

In a report in May 2023 the HMICFRS inspected Avon Fire and Rescue Service for seven weeks, and found that the service still doesn’t have an effective system to make sure it gathers and records relevant and up-to-date risk information to help protect firefighters, the public and property during an emergency and that most operational staff had not been given the support they need to collect risk information.

It also highlighted concern over the mobilisation system, which records information and dispatches resources to emergency incidents saying it was not reliable and crashes during emergency 999 calls leading to slower responses.

Read next

The HMICFRS returned in December 2023 to interview staff including the chief fire officer and found appropriate and clear governance arrangements were in place to monitor progress of the action plan.

The HMICFRS reported: “We were pleased to find that the service had increased staff resources within the risk information team. This has allowed it to provide training to operational staff, including operational wholetime firefighters as well as supervisory and middle managers.

“Although staff spoke positively about the new process for gathering and storing risk information and the service’s plans for the future, some felt that IT systems could still be improved. For example, staff felt that the process was still convoluted and that the transfer of risk information records should be automated rather than manual. This would lessen the risk of records being lost or deleted.”

The service has introduced a new quality assurance process that involves the supervisory manager approving risk information records. At the time of the revisit, the service was planning to install its new mobile data terminals onto its fire engines. This will allow firefighters to access risk information more easily compared to the current tablets, which have been described as unreliable.

On the mobilising system it added: “During our last inspection, we reported that the mobilising system crashed on some consoles. This was while the fire control operator was taking emergency calls.

Sign up to receive daily news updates and breaking news alerts straight to your inbox for free here.

“This unnecessarily delays the mobilisation of resources, which results in the public receiving a slower response to emergencies. During our revisit, we were encouraged to find that the system was more reliable following escalation with the third-party supplier, but the system is still not free from technical faults.

“The service had escalated the issues identified with the supplier to the highest level. Regular daily meetings took place to report on progress.”

In conclusion the report states: “We were pleased to see that the service has started to make good progress in relation to both accelerated causes of concern. We recognise that the service has invested time and resources to develop its action plan and has established appropriate and clear governance arrangements, which are being further strengthened following the publication of our full report.

“Despite good progress being made, there is still more work to do. While the action plan is comprehensive, it is too early to determine how effective the plan will be in addressing the accelerated causes of concern. We look forward to seeing the future progress made, particularly once all SSRI visits have been completed and the service has tested the stability of its mobilising system over a longer period.

“We will return to Avon Fire and Rescue Service on a date to be agreed in the near future. We will assess whether the service has made satisfactory progress with its action plan and whether the service it provides to the public has improved.”

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • Labour council ‘unfairly’ fined thousands of drivers £2.6m

    A Labour council which “unfairly” fined thousands of motorists millions of pounds is being urged to issue refunds after a mistake in the wording on its penalty charge notices (PCNs) meant they were “legally void”.

  • Britain still doesn’t have a clue about the scale of the disaster heading its way

    Reform overtaking the Tories according to one poll is undoubtedly a watershed moment in British politics. But Nigel Farage’s suggestion that “a vote for the Conservatives is now a vote for Labour” isn’t quite right. Because Reform simply doesn’t have the numbers to replace the Tories; only to destroy them, with no clear idea of what would follow. When the red mist clears, what we’re going to be left with is a future far worse than even the wettest of Conservatives could muster.

  • How India’s caste discrimination was Narendra Modi’s undoing

    From her archive, Christiane Amanpour’s report on the deplorable treatment of India’s underclass, and the origins of a political movement that delivered India’s shock election results.

  • Wes Streeting warns of ‘nightmare in Downing Street’

    Wes Streeting has warned of a ‘nightmare in Downing Street’, echoing The Sun’s headlines in the run-up to the general election in 2019.

  • How Emmanuel Macron lobbed a grenade at the hard-Right and blew up French politics

    It is a picture that will go down in the annals of French political history.

  • Supreme Court strikes down Trump-era ban on bump stocks on guns

    The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a federal ban on bump stocks approved by former President Donald Trump, the high court’s latest stroke limiting the power of federal agencies to act on their own.

  • Voters must remember how good they’ve had it under the Conservatives

    At half-time, we need a wake-up call in the interests of our families and the country.

  • Tory leadership hopefuls ‘already lobbying’ to replace Sunak

    Sources say contenders jostling for support amid fears of historic wipeout in election

  • Bomb hoaxes and death threats plague British Caribbean island officials

    Counterterrorism police and the FBI are investigating a campaign of bomb hoaxes and death threats aimed at officials on British Caribbean islands.

  • Supreme Court’s abortion pill ruling puts new focus on conservative Trump judge in Texas

    The Supreme Court’s decision this week rebuffing an effort to restrict access to mifepristone is unlikely to be the final word on the abortion pill.

  • Tories heading for 'warfare', Farage predicts, as ex-Cabinet minister pleads with voters to 'unite the right'

    Nigel Farage has predicted the Tories will soon descend into "warfare" as a former Conservative minister warned voters about a "Labour elective dictatorship" if they voted for Reform. The Reform UK leader told The Sunday Telegraph that divisions in the party were only going to "get worse" in the run-up to polling day on 4 July. Mr Farage was speaking as three polls this week painted a bleak picture for Mr Sunak - and a sunny one for his party.

  • Labour has no excuse for banning trail hunting

    Twenty years ago, when the Hunting Act was passed, most of us thought that hunting as we knew it would end. That was wrong. Hunts changed, adapting to trail hunting and exempt hunting. The former involves laying a scent – a trail – for hounds to follow, but with no killing of live quarry. Today, hunting is still flourishing and is as popular as ever.

  • Johnson vows to take Garland contempt case to court after DOJ snub

    Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that the House will take their contempt of Congress case against Attorney General Merrick Garland’s to court, after the Justice Department (DOJ) refused to pursue charges. “It is sadly predictable that the Biden administration’s Justice Department will not prosecute Garland for defying congressional subpoenas even though the department aggressively prosecuted…

  • ‘This could end up ugly’: after Macron’s gamble, will the far right seize power in France?

    Marine Le Pen’s party is breaking record high scores across vast areas of the country, polls show, with an increase in its influence inevitable

  • Reform UK manifesto: Nigel Farage’s key policies at a glance

    Reform UK will release its “contract with the people” in full on June 17, Nigel Farage has announced as he set out more of the party’s economic pledges to repair the “skint” UK.

  • Policeman shoots, injures magistrate in Kenya court

    STORY: A police officer shot and injured a magistrate at a court in Kenya's capital Nairobi on Thursday (June 13), before being killed in a shootout with other officers.That’s according to the judiciary.The chief registrar said in a statement that Monica Kivuti, a magistrate at the Makadara Law Courts, was shot after rejecting a bond request for the police officer's wife.A statement from the chief justice Martha Koome said Kivuti and three other officers were injured in the ensuing shootout. Koome said "it is clear that the intention of the perpetrator was to kill the magistrate," ordering security at all courts across the country to be reinforced.Nairobi Police Chief Commander Adamson Bungei:"Our officers who were within the court, were able to act swiftly and we managed to neutralize the situation and now we can say that our magistrate and the officers are stable."A police report seen by Reuters stated that the policeman's wife had requested release on bail after pleading guilty to obtaining almost $23,000 by false pretenses.

  • Former president Hollande makes surprise comeback in French election

    Former French Socialist president Francois Hollande on Saturday said he will run for parliament again, the latest political twist after his successor Emmanuel Macron unexpectedly called snap legislative elections. Macron's dissolving of parliament after the French far right's victory in European parliamentary elections has swiftly redrawn the lines of French politics.A new left-wing alliance has emerged and the main right-wing party's leader has announced he is prepared to back an alliance with

  • Sunak seeks support for Ukraine as Starmer and Streeting probed on NHS funding

    Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey will trail his party’s police and crime policies.

  • Justice Department Says It Won't Prosecute Merrick Garland For Contempt Of Congress

    The U.S. attorney general didn't break a law by defying a Republican subpoena for an audio recording of President Joe Biden, the department said.

  • Spanish prosecutors defy order to apply amnesty to Catalonia's ex-leader

    Spanish prosecutors handling a case against Catalan separatist leaders have defied an order to apply an amnesty law to defendants charged with embezzlement. The legislation, which the minority government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pushed through in return for support in parliament from the separatists, is set to wipe clean the criminal records of almost 500 officials and activists involved in Catalonia's pro-independence push since 2011. Spain's government depends on the support of Junts and several regional groups to pass legislation, and the future of that support is not certain.