To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what has been the recommended complement of staff for the Northern Ireland fire brigade in each of the last five years.

The recommended complements are as follows:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many incidents the Northern Ireland fire brigade has responded to in each of the last five years.

The number of incidents was as follows:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many fire stations have been upgraded in each of the last five years; and if he will list those stations which have been recommended for upgrading but have still to be upgraded.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the operation of the pay formula as it applies to the Northern Ireland fire brigade and the impact of the 1·5 per cent. pay increase; and what steps are proposed to reinstate the departure in the current year from the agreed pay formula.

The Government are not a party to the firefighters' pay agreement and have no role in the negotiation of firefighters' pay, which is negotiated on a United Kingdom basis within the National Joint Council for Local Authorities' Fire Brigades, on which employers' and employees' organisations are represented. The current pay agreement provides for annual increases in firefighters' pay to be linked to the upper quartile of movements in pay for skilled manual workers. However, the Government have made it clear that the fire service employers are expected to comply with the policy on public sector pay, that any increases in the 1993 pay round should not exceed 1·5 per cent. Resources for the Fire Authority for Northern Ireland for the 1993–94 financial year have been determined accordingly. It is too early to speculate about the operation of the fire service pay formula after the current year.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to how many incidents retained firemen responded to with below the Home Office recommended level of crews in each of the last five years.

I am advised by the Chief Fire Officer that accurate figures on the number of incidents retained firemen responded to with below the Home Office recommended level of crews are not available on a Province-wide basis. However, I am assure that the number of such incidents in each of the last five years was negligible.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will publish details of manning levels in the Northern Ireland fire brigade over each of the last five years.

The information is as follows:

Ballymena fire station was upgraded in 1990, Bangor in 1991 and Lisburn in 1992.The following stations recommended for upgrading have still to be upgraded.