Essex County Fire & Rescue Service

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FOI / 3836 / 2018 - Hoax calls and costings

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I can confirm that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service does hold this information.

Initial request:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. (I have recently sent another FOI related to schools. You can combine them if you prefer)

Please provide me with the following information.

1) The number of times your fire and rescue service has been sent to hoaxes and malicious false fire alarms in schools for each of the last five financial years (2017/18, 2016/17, 2015/16, 2014/15, 2013/14). Please, can you also include the type of malicious false fire alarm if you record it (for instance, call, activation of a fire point/alarm etc)?

2) If possible, the estimated cost of attending these hoaxes and false fire alarms in schools, for each of the last five financial years (2017/18, 2016/17, 2015/16, 2014/15, 2013/14).

3) The number of times your fire and rescue services attended genuine emergencies in schools for each of the last five financial years (2017/18, 2016/17, 2015/16, 2014/15, 2013/14).

If/where possible, please provide me with details (for instance if your service attended the call, what happened etc) and the name of the school (for both questions).

Please (really please), provide me the table in an EXCEL file (not Word, PDF or in the body of the email). This is essential since other formats than excel or csv make more difficult for me to use the figures.

Final response:

Please see below the answers to your request.

Please provide me with the following information.

1) The number of times your fire and rescue service has been sent to hoaxes and malicious false fire alarms in schools for each of the last five financial years (2017/18, 2016/17, 2015/16, 2014/15, 2013/14). Please, can you also include the type of malicious false fire alarm if you record it (for instance, call, activation of a fire point/alarm etc)?

Please find our response to your request on the accompanying spreadsheet

2) If possible, the estimated cost of attending these hoaxes and false fire alarms in schools, for each of the last five financial years (2017/18, 2016/17, 2015/16, 2014/15, 2013/14).

I can confirm that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service does hold this information, however from our preliminary assessment; we estimate that compliance with your request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is currently £450. This limit is calculated 18 hours of work at a cost of £25 per hour. The information you have requested is not available because it would involve retrieving information from 98 files and calculating the cost for each individual appliance mobilised. We estimate this as taking 15 minutes per file x 98 files = 24.5 hours. Therefore we will not be complying with this part of your request. In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice in respect of this part of your request.

3) The number of times your fire and rescue services attended genuine emergencies in schools for each of the last five financial years (2017/18, 2016/17, 2015/16, 2014/15, 2013/14).

Please find our response to your request on the accompanying spreadsheet

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 addressed to: Internal Review, Performance & Data Team, Kelvedon Park, Rivenhall, Witham, Essex CM8 3HB

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