Official Statistics

Non-fire incidents: animal assistance guidance

Updated 23 August 2024

Applies to England

Publishing Incident Recording System data on the fire and rescue service at an incident level:

Frequency of release: Annual

First publication: 25 January 2018

Latest update: 25 July 2024

Forthcoming releases: Home Office statistics release calendar

Home Office responsible statistician: Helene Clark

Press enquiries: [email protected]

Telephone: 0300 123 3535

Public enquiries: [email protected]

1. Background

Data quality

Incident records in the Incident Recording System (IRS) are the responsibility of, and quality assured by, fire and rescue services (FRSs). The Home Office and the FRSs are working on improving the data within the IRS and reducing possible inconsistencies. Having said that, the IRS was not designed with record level datasets in mind so we are aware of some possible inconsistencies and there may well be other issues.

IRS incident records are a judgement call of the lead fire officer at the time of the incident. The quality of the information provided by fire and rescue services is variable and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed, especially at a record level. For instance, some records involve estimation by those in attendance.

Dataset rationale

Fire and rescue services and the Home Office receive a relatively high number of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests regarding animal assistance incidents. This dataset provides a national resource to enable a detailed and consistent answer to those queries. The Home Office has, and will continue to, engage with stakeholders, such as statistical users and FRSs, to gauge opinion on the most useful datasets to publish.

Dataset definition

The animal assistance dataset covers non-fire incidents attended by FRSs in England that they defined as “animal assistance”. The Home Office only has jurisdiction for fire policy in England and therefore has published incident data for England only.

The data in this dataset is consistent with records that reached the IRS by 15 May 2024.

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2. Variable by variable - scene setting

Variable Name: FRS_NAME
Variable Description: The FRS in which the incident took place
IRS Question: 1.6

The fire and rescue service (FRS) in which the incident took place, not necessarily the FRS which responded. Occasionally an FRS will respond to an incident “over the border”, and because of this users should be careful about making general comments about particular FRSs as some incidents may have been attended by other FRSs. This dataset only covers incidents that took place in England.

Due to data protection issues, and in line with other datasets, we have merged Isles of Scilly data with Cornwall, as the number of animal assistance incidents in Isles of Scilly is minimal.

Figures for Dorset and Wiltshire, who merged into one FRS on 1 April 2016, are presented merged.

Figures for Hampshire and Isle of Wight, who merged into one FRS on 1 April 2021, are presented merged.

Variable Name: E_CODE
Variable Description: The E Code of the FRS
IRS Question: 1.6 (based on)

The standard National Statistics code (E Code) of the fire and rescue service (FRS) in FRS_TERRITORY. In this case the code for Cornwall has been used for the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly combined FRS.

Variable Name: FINANCIAL_YEAR
Variable Description: The financial year the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

A financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March. Record level information is published from the financial year 2012 to 2013; although the IRS began in April 2009, animal assistance incidents are not available in a consistent manner until this point. Incidents are allocated to a financial year depending on the time of the call, which is usually collected through automatic systems. For example, an incident where the call was made at 23.59 on 31 March 2013 but the incident was closed at 01.34 on 1 April 2013 would be allocated to the financial year 2012 to 2013 not the financial year 2013 to 2014.

Variable Name: CALENDAR_YEAR
Variable Description: The calendar year the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

A calendar year runs from 1 January to 31 December. Record level information is published from the financial year 2012 to 2013; although the IRS began in April 2009, animal assistance incidents are not available in a consistent manner until this point. Incidents are allocated to calendar year depending on the time of the call, which is usually collected through automatic systems. For example, an incident where the call was made at 23.59 on 31 December 2012 but the incident was closed at 01.34 on 1 January 2013 would be allocated to 2012 not 2013. It should be noted that figures for 2012 will be lower because only records from 1 April 2012 are included in the dataset - this is also true of the latest financial year published.

Variable Name: MONTH_NAME
Variable Description: The month the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

The month the incident took place. This would return “December” for 25 December 2015.

Variable Name: MONTH_CODE
Variable Description: A code to help users analyse data
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

Because the month variable is not in chronological order when sorted, this code has been added. Month 1 is January, month 2 is February, for instance. This would return “12” for 25 December 2015.

Variable Name: DAY
Variable Description: The day of the month the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

The day of the month the incident took place, this would return “25” for 25 December 2015.

Variable Name: DATE
Variable Description: The date the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

The date the incident took place. This would return “25/12/2015” for 25 December 2015.

Variable Name: DAY_OF_WEEK
Variable Description: The day of the week the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

The day of the week (for example, Monday) the incident took place. This would return “Friday” for 25 December 2015.

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3. Variable by variable - situation

Variable Name: INCIDENT_LOCATION_TYPE
Variable Description: The type of location the incident occurred in
IRS Question: 3.2

Incidents are categorised into one of the 4 following locations - dwelling, other building, road vehicle or outdoors.

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4. Variable by variable - the incident

Variable Name: ASSISTANCE_TYPE
Variable Description: The type of assistance performed by the FRS
IRS Question: 3.3

The most resource intensive element of the incident in the opinion of the lead fire officer at the time of the incident. There are 7 options - “animal harm”, “lift heavy animal”, “rescue from below ground”, “rescue from height”, “rescue from water/mud etc.”, “trapped animal” and “other”.

Variable Name: ANIMAL_GROUP
Variable Description: The type of animal assisted by the incident
IRS Question: 3.3

The most resource intensive type of animal that was assisted in the opinion of the lead fire officer at the time of the incident. There are three options - “domestic”, “livestock” and “wild”. Some records have circumvented our systems and been classified as “birds”. These have been allocated to “wild” although it is likely a small number should be allocated to “domestic”. More detailed information is not available on a consistent basis.

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5. Variable by variable - resourcing

Variable Name: VEHICLES
Variable Description: The number of fire service vehicles that attended the incident
IRS Question: 6.2

The total number of FRS vehicles that attended the incident. This includes all types of vehicle, for example hazardous materials units, fire boats and canteen vans would be included in this total. Large numbers are grouped for ease of use and to reduce the personal data risk of incidents being matched across datasets. For example, there is likely to be few incidents attended by 147 officers and this could be matched to other datasets containing this variable but grouping these in the “40 or more” grouping makes this impossible.

Variable Name: VEHICLES_CODE
Variable Description: A code to help users analyse data
IRS Question: 6.2

Because some of the options in the vehicles variable contains letters (for example, 15 or more) this code has been added after feedback from users to aid analysis. 99 is used for “don’t know”.

Variable Name: PERSONNEL
Variable Description: The number of fire crew and officers that attended the incident
IRS Question: Combination of 6.1 and 6.4

The number of FRS personnel that attended the incident on fire service appliances or by other means (for example, their own vehicle, on foot). Large numbers of personnel are grouped for ease of use and to reduce the personal data risk of incidents being matched across datasets. For example, there are likely to be few incidents attended by 147 officers and this could be matched to other datasets containing this variable but grouping these in the “40 or more” grouping makes this impossible.

Variable Name: PERSONNEL_CODE
Variable Description: A code to help users analyse data
IRS Question: Combination of 6.1 and 6.4

Because some of the options in the personnel variable contains letters (for example, 40 or more) this code has been added after feedback from users to aid analysis. 99 is used for “don’t know”.

Variable Name: RESPONSE_TIME
Variable Description: The time between the call being made and the first fire service vehicle attending the scene
IRS Question: Combination of 2.1 and 6.8

The time of the call is defined as when first call was received to Command and Control. If the call was received by one FRS and relayed to another, then the time of the call to the first FRS is used. Both of these variables are usually collected through automatic systems.

Variable Name: RESPONSE_TIME_CODE
Variable Description: A code to help users analyse data
IRS Question: Combination of 2.1 and 6.8

Because all of the options in the response time variable contains letters (for example, 1 to 2 mins) this code has been added after feedback from users to aid analysis. 99 is used for “don’t know”.

Variable Name: TIME_AT_SCENE
Variable Description: The time between the first fire service vehicle attending the scene and the incident being closed.
IRS Question: Combination of 6.8 and 2.6

An incident is closed when the last FRS appliance, vehicle or officer left the scene of the incident. Both of these variables are usually collected through automatic systems.

Variable Name: TIME_AT_SCENE_CODE
Variable Description: A code to help users analyse data
IRS Question: Combination of 6.8 and 2.6

Because all of the options in the time at scene variable contains letters (for example, 0 to 15 mins) this code has been added after feedback from users to aid analysis.