To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the total number of fire stations in each fire brigade area in the United Kingdom; and on average, how many people are served by each fire station according to each fire brigade area.

The statistics for England and Wales, based on the annual returns by fire authorities of the fire brigade establishment scheme in force in their areas on 1 January 1990, are as follows:

Fire brigade	Fire stations	Population	Average population served
Avon	23	956,200	41,573
Bedfordshire	14	530,700	37,907
Berkshire	19	752,900	39,626
Buckinghamshire	25	640,000	25,600
Cambridgeshire	28	652,740	23,312
Cheshire	24	951,900	39,662
Cleveland	15	553,400	36,893
Clwyd	18	407,000	22,611
Cornwall	32	460,000	14,375
Cumbria	38	487,000	12,815

Fire brigade	Fire stations	Population	Average population served
Derbyshire	31	918,720	29,636
Devon	58	1,010,000	17,413
Dorset	26	655,700	25,219
Durham	18	586,700	32,594
Dyfed	25	348,400	13,936
East Sussex	24	712,800	29,700
Essex	51	1,521,800	29,839
Gloucestershire	20	527,500	26,375
Gwent	20	445,500	22,275
Gwynedd	26	238,000	9,153
Hampshire	55	1,615,000	29,363
Hereford and Worcester	26	650,773	25,030
Hertfordshire	32	996,198	31,131
Humberside	31	846,500	27,306
Isles of Scilly	5	2,000	400
Isle of Wight	10	132,000	13,200
Kent	65	1,520,400	23,390
Lancashire	40	1,386,300	34,658
Leicestershire	19	885,500	46,605
Lincolnshire	37	590,000	15,946
London	114	6,764,074	59,334
Greater Manchester	41	2,585,200	63,053
Merseyside	28	1,448,139	51,719
Mid Glamorgan	24	534,700	22,279
Norfolk	40	752,100	18,803
Northamptonshire	22	575,000	26,136
Northumberland	19	304,850	16,044
North Yorkshire	36	713,100	19,808
Nottinghamshire	26	1,007,700	38,758
Oxfordshire	24	600,400	25,017
Powys	18	112,500	6,250
Shropshire	23	400,800	17,426
Somerset	24	457,700	19,071
South Glamorgan	8	403,400	50,425
South Yorkshire	27	1,315,000	48,704
Staffordshire	30	1,039,900	34,663
Suffolk	35	643,900	18,397
Surrey	24	999,752	41,656
Tyne and Wear	19	1,135,900	59,784
Warwickshire	20	484,200	24,210
West Glamorgan	12	362,800	30,233
West Midlands	41	2,617,242	63,835
West Sussex	28	708,000	28,286
West Yorkshire	52	2,056,600	39,550
Wiltshire	24	564,000	23,500

Population is just one factor among many—fully explained in fire service circular No. 4/1985, copies of which are in the Library—used in categorising risk and thus determining the number, location and staffing of fire stations.