Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
We can confirm that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service does hold the information you have requested.
Please see below the answer to your request.
Questions and final response:
Question 1 – How many dogs were part of the fire service for each of the last ten calendar years (2012-2022), broken down by job type. (e.g., Fire investigation search dog)? How many full-time members of staff (trainers, handlers, officers etc) were working in the service’s dog unit for each of the years in the same period?
See attached table.
Question 2 - Please list the main breeds used in the totals in question 1. Please list the most commonly used breeds first.?
Spaniels
Labradors
Question 3 – What was the service’s total budget for each of these years and how much was allocated to the dog unit?
£6,091 for current year.
The funding is provided by National Resilience through the Home Office.
The figure has remained the same for at least the previous four years.
Question 4 – Does the service have its own dog breeding unit?
No
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Incident and other data is published on our transparency site. Incident Data (essexfire.gov.uk) .
Please note that the response and data released to you as part of this request will be published on our website http://transparency.essex-fire.gov.uk/.
All requests will be anonymised and no personal information including contact details will be disclosed as part of this process.
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Thank you for your interest in Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, we hope this satisfies your request.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to apply for an internal review.
Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of your original email and should be sent to informationgovernance@essex-fire.gov.uk or sent to our postal address: Internal Review, System & Data Information Governance Team, Kelvedon Park, Rivenhall, Witham, Essex CM8 3HB.
Please ensure you quote the above reference number in all future communications.