The Home Office has published the latest fire prevention and protection statistics, showing a massive reduction in fire and rescue service activity during the pandemic.
The number of fire safety audits carried out by fire and rescue service inspecting officers fell 30 percent on the previous year to just over 34,000. This is substantially lower than five years ago when services carried out over 54,000 audits.
Fire and rescue service inspection
Fire safety audit is a planned visit by a fire and rescue service to carry out a comprehensive assessment
As the pandemic forced much of the service’s fire safety activity online, desktop audits account for just under a third of all audits. A fire safety audit is a planned visit by a fire and rescue service to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the level of compliance with the requirements of the Fire Safety Order in a particular premises.
Fire and rescue service inspection of purpose-built flats increased substantially during 2020/2021, overtaking shops, care homes, and licensed premises as the most inspected type of building. The statistics released by the Home Office cover England only, and reveal that despite the reduction in overall audits, the number of prohibition notices rocketed from 52 in the 2019/2020 year to over 350 during the pandemic year.
Home Office statistics
Home Office statistics offer no explanation about this increase, nor do they say what type of building received the prohibition notices. While the pandemic impacted how buildings have been used, the increased inspection of purpose-built flats is likely to have been an influence as well.
The statistics also reveal that across the 45 fire and rescue services for the period 2020/2021, there were 1,001 staff qualified to carry out fire safety inspections and 95 fire engineers.