We have developed nine emergency response categories, based on risk, which are set out in our Community Risk Management Plan 2021-2024. These response time standards are based on the time a call is received on station to the time the appliance arrives at the incident.
The total response time, is made up of the length of time it takes for a 999 call to be handled, a fire engine to be mobilised, firefighters to crew that fire engine, and the travel time for that fire engine to arrive at that incident. The overall response time can be broken down into different elements – Call Handling time, Turnout Time and Travel Time.
The response time measures, take into account, the Turnout and Travel times, but it is also important to monitor the Call Handling Time to be able to see the whole picture.
Our response time performance is reported in full here
Our overall service percentage response standard achievement for 23/24 is :
87%
Our average response time across all incidents and risk types for 2023/24 is:
7 minutes 40 seconds
Response standards matrix
Incident category risk | ||||
High | Medium | Low | ||
Community risk | Target | 7 minutes | 9 minutes | 11 minutes |
High | 6 minutes 32 seconds | 8 minutes 17 seconds | 7 minutes 20 seconds | |
Target | 9 minutes | 11 minutes | 13 minutes | |
Medium | 7 minutes 15 seconds | 8 minutes 36 seconds | 7 minutes 34 seconds | |
Target | 11 minutes | 13 minutes | 15 minutes | |
Low | 7 minutes 39 seconds | 9 minutes 01 seconds | 7 minutes 40 seconds |