Emergency Services
Emergency Services in the UK are mainly provided by three organisations; Ambulance, Fire and Police.
Historically these were introduced and funded on a local basis, with every county and county borough having its own services. There have been several reorganisations over the years, the largest in 1974 which formed the basic structure of today's services.
Ambulance Services
At first these were the responsibility of the Police, but larger cities evolved their own services, sometimes as joint services with Fire services.
Birmingham's drivers would drive ambulances one day and fire engines the next! By late 1947 every county and county borough was compelled to introduce its own ambulance service. 1965 saw the reorganisation of London County Council, which absorbed Middlesex and the county boroughs of Croydon, East Ham, West Ham, and several parts of Essex, Herts, Kent and Surrey into the London Ambulance Service of today.
Since 1974 several county services have joined neighbours in promoting larger units; West Country being an amalgamation of Cornwall, Devon and Somerset for example. The Welsh counties have been condensed by merger, and more recently into just one service, albeit with divisions. Northern Ireland has been reformed into a single service, whilst Scotland has had one service for many years. There are 35 NHS services at present:
Avon, Beds & Herts, Cumbria, Dorset, East Anglian, East Midlands, Essex, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Hereford & Worcester, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancs, Lincs, London, Mersey, North East, Northern Ireland, Oxon, Royal Berkshire, Scotland, Shropshire, South Yorks, Staffs, Surrey, Sussex, Tees, Two Shires, Wales, Warwicks, West Country, West Midlands, West Yorks and Wiltshire. Services on the Channel Islands and Isle of Man are provided as part of their own local government systems.
Other important ambulance organisations are British Red Cross and St John Ambulance.
With the increase in private health provision, there are a growing number of independent operators often serving private hospitals, airports, etc.
Some large manufacturing organisations, e.g. car plants, etc, run limited services themselves.
Fire Services
Compared with the Ambulance Services, Fire services have survived all the re-organisations of local government relatively unscathed. Middlesex was lost to the enlarged London authority in 1965, but every county established in the 1974 reorganisation still has a service today - even those than recently vanished in yet another revamp, such as Avon and Humberside.
The newly introduced unitary status conferred on certain councils has caused a few re-naming exercises to be "politically correct"; Bedfordshire now being "Bedfordshire and Luton"; Durham now being "County Durham and Darlington", etc.
Scottish reorganisation in 1975 brought the total brigades there down to 8, which is the situation today, whilst Wales has been reduced by to just 3 by mergers over the years. Northern Ireland has a single service, and as with ambulance services, offshore islands have their own fire services run by local government. At present there are 56 authorities.
There are a considerable number of "works fire services" and services at major airports, ports and military installations.
Police Services
There are 52 Police Forces in the UK at present which serve major cities and counties. Two Forces serve London: most readers will know of the Metropolitan Police, but the City of London Police also exists, to patrol the financial district of the city and a few outlying areas which are under the control of the City of London Corporation.
Merged forces over the years: Avon & Somerset, Devon & Cornwall, Dyfed-Powys, Hampshire Constabulary (Hants & Isle of Wight), Northumbria (Tyneside & Northumberland), North Wales (Clwyd & Gwynedd), South Wales (Mid, South & West Glamorgan), Sussex (East & West Sussex), Thames Valley (Berks, Bucks & Oxon) and West Mercia Constabulary (Hereford & Worcester, and Shropshire).
In Scotland Lothian & Borders is a single combined force, whilst the Northern Constabulary services the Highland area plus Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.
Other national forces are British Transport Police, Ministry of Defence Police and United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary. The Royal Parks Police patrol various parks and estates.
There are separate forces for various docks; Port of Bristol Police, Port of Dover Police etc.
You can find details of UK Forces at www.police.uk
Other Organisations
Civil Defence
The Civil Defence was set up after World War Two, when the threat of nuclear attack by Russia was thought to be a possibility. The service was disbanded in 1968, but some vehicles remain in the hands of preservationists.
Home Office
"Green Goddess" fire appliances are provided by the Home Office. Although built over 40 years ago they have been used at various times as cover during dispute between involving the fire service and its employees.
Marine Services Agency
This was previously Her Majesty's Coastguard. Responsibilities include co-ordination of marine rescues, shipping disabled craft, swimmers, etc. Operations are conducted from 4 Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centres at Dover, Falmouth, Greenock and Swansea. There are a further 13 Sub-Centres, 54 Sector Bases, and 186 Auxiliary Stations. Operational fleet is 334 vehicles, 110 Trailers and 34 boats.
Her Majesty's Coastguard
Her Majesty's Coastguard is part of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency. Main responsibilities are co-ordination of marine rescues, cliff, beach and mud rescues, shipping, disabled craft, swimmers, etc. There are three divisions; Eastern, Scotland & Northern Ireland and Western. Operations are carried out from 6 Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centres (MRCC’s) and assisted by 13 Marine Rescue Sub Centres (MRSC’s):
| Division | MRCC’s | MRSC’s |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern | Dover, Yarmouth | Humber, London, Portland, Solent, Thames |
| Scotland/NI | Aberdeen, Clyde | Belfast, Forth, Shetland, Stornoway |
| Western | Falmouth, Swansea | Brixham, Holyhead, Liverpool, Milford Haven |
There are a further 54 Sector Bases and 186 Auxiliary Stations. Operational fleet is 334 vehicles, 110 trailers and 34 boats.
Find out more about HM Coastguard at www.hmcoastguard.co.uk
Lifeboat Services
In the UK and Eire these are provided by The Royal Lifeboat National Institution, a service manned largely by volunteers and funded by public subscription. There is a small vehicle fleet, including specialised tractors for launching/retrieving lifeboats from beaches. The RNLI has a long history of excellent service and dedications going back to 1824 - see their web site at www.rnli.org.uk
Cave and Mountain Rescue Teams
All mountainous areas of the UK have dedicated volunteers trained to operate as rescue teams. Incidents usually involve injured climbers, lost school parties, etc. They can co-ordinate with local emergency services to remove injured persons, often calling RAF and Royal Navy helicopters if needed. Similar teams operate to cover areas which include large cave and pothole networks. Please contact us if you organise one of the teams, so we can feature them in more detail.
The "999" Number
To today's reader it will be difficult to envisage that there was a time without mobile phones, but when emergency services were beginning to be introduced very few people possessed telephones in their houses, which led to the introduction of public call boxes provided by the GPO, and in some cities Police Call boxes which could be used by the public to summon emergency action. One of these was to become the model of the Tardis on the "Dr. Who" television series.
As each local authority and city ran its own emergency services; telephone numbers would be different from place to place. It was decided to have a standard telephone number for the whole country which could be easily remembered. To encourage the public to remember some authorities; Bolton, Leeds, Nottingham for example, which had their own registration offices; often used "999" in the numbers of their vehicles. This was particularly widespread in the registration of fire appliances, but applied to ambulances also, and to a lesser extent; police vehicles.
With local government reorganisation in 1974, the allocation of registrations was transferred to DVLA, Swansea and the practise virtually ceased, but Derbyshire Fire Service were still procuring registrations featuring 999 until the late seventies.
