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Fire Services

Volume 479: debated on Monday 21 July 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which fire services (a) own and (b) operate a helicopter. (220663)

None of the fire and rescue services in England owns its own helicopter. Responsibility for fire and rescue services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland has been devolved.

A number of fire and rescue authorities (FRAs) in England participate in schemes utilising helicopters owned by other organisations, such as the private sector, the police, the ambulance service, HM Coastguard and the armed forces, for a range of operations, including fighting grassland, moorland and forestry fires, undertaking search and rescue, reaching inaccessible areas or grid-locked roads, and transporting equipment.

Information on which individual FRAs participate in such schemes is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what research she has commissioned into the effectiveness of fire service helicopters in (a) urban and (b) rural areas. (220666)

No research has been commissioned by Communities and Local Government into the effectiveness of the use of helicopters by the Fire and Rescue Service.

The Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) held a conference on Air Support in the Fire and Rescue Service on 8 May, which I attended, and in the light of those and other discussions CFOA is currently drawing up a business case for a national system of air support which will include proposals for the use of helicopters in both urban and rural areas.