Fire service employs less women and ethnic minorities than national average

Photo: Jan Harwood

Fire service employs less women and ethnic minorities than national average

The number of women and ethnic minority staff employed full time by the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue service stands below the national average for metropolitan fire services.

In Greater Manchester, 1.3%, of what the Fire and Rescue service terms its 'wholetime' workforce, are women. The national average for the UK's seven Metropolitan fire services is just over 3%. Of Greater Manchester's 1,983 wholetime staff, just 26 are women.

Ethnic minority staff make up 1.84% of Greater Manchester's wholetime staff, compared to a 6.17% national average.

Sickness absence levels for wholetime firefighters in Greater Manchester are better than the national average. 5.9 days/shifts were lost in 2007/2008, compared with 7.7 nationally.

The total number of injuries sustained by Greater Manchester firefighters during training, operational incidents and routine activities in 2007/08 was exactly the same as least year at 197, although there was a reduction in the numbers of injuries that lasted more than three days from 39 to 33.

Across England the fire and rescue service attended 164 thousand special service incidents, 24% of which were road traffic incidents.