The 'Financial Benchmarking Final Report' (the Report) and ‘Financial Benchmarking Methodology Report’ (the Methodology) were developed to help Fire and Emergency understand how other fire service entities invest across their activities. The benchmark for this report was conducted with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS).

The purpose of the work was to develop a benchmark which would provide an evidence base for comparison against similar or composite jurisdictions and organisations. This was not an Operational Benchmarking activity.

The Report identifies that the split of expenses is generally comparable between Fire and Emergency and SFRS, while there also being differences in spend between Frontline and Frontline Enabler categories. These differences are primarily driven by differences in the employee mix between both organisations, in particular the proportion of volunteers in the workforce.

The Report and the Methodology reflect an approach developed between Fire and Emergency and the SFRS and will allow Fire and Emergency to benchmark with other emergency service organisations. The Methodology would be refined in each case to accommodate differences in operation and structure between organisations.