asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the number and proportion of firemen reaching qualified status who have left the service within five years of completing their training during the last five years.

A fireman has to have four years' operational service and to have completed prescribed training modules to become qualified. Information about the number of qualified firemen who have left the service is not available. During the last five years, however, the number of whole-time men in the rank of firemen in England and Wales who left the service having served for more than five years and up to 10 years is:

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the cost to public funds of training a fireman to qualified status.

Following the completion of their 12 weeks' basic training course, the primary aim of which is to enable recruits to take their place alongside operational firemen in brigades, all firemen participate in continual and progressive training programmes. These lead at the end of four years, after specific training modules have been completed, to qualified fireman status. It is not possible to identify the cost of training an individual fireman to qualified fireman status.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if a productivity scheme based on enhanced efficiency and changed job content for employees in the fire services is permissible under the terms of the Government pay policy.

I refer my hon. Friend to the statement which I made to the House during the course of the debate on the motion for the Adjournment on Tuesday 15th November about the negotiations which are taking place between the two sides of the National Joint Council for Local Authorities' Fire Brigades. Any productivity scheme which was introduced in the fire service would have to satisfy the criteria applying to all such schemes.