FOI release
mobilising and availability arrangements for officers of Station Commander rank and above
Case reference FOI2026/00894
Received 30 July 2026
Published 8 October 2026
Request
I am writing to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Scope. This request concerns officers of the command ranks of Station Commander and above (Station Commander, Group Commander, Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and Commissioner, or their equivalents). It does not concern Leading Firefighter, Sub Officer or Station Officer ranks. Where the Brigade's own documents use the word "officer" more broadly, please answer by reference to the command ranks identified above. I am requesting named policy documents, system information, data fields and retention information only. I am not requesting any personal data, and I am not requesting any information relating to any identified or identifiable individual. I have already reviewed Policy number 367 and Policy number 879 as published on your website, and this request does not duplicate them. Each numbered item below is a request for a single discrete document or a single point of factual information. 1. A copy of Policy number 232 - Availability of personnel, appliances and equipment, in its current version. 2. A copy of Policy number 327 - Guidance for senior managers in relation to mobilising and rota management, in its current version. 3. A copy of Policy number 439 - Covering absences of uniformed officers, in its current version. 4. A copy of the current procedure or user guidance for the Staff Attendance Recording System (StARS) in so far as it relates to the recording of officers' duty status, availability and location - including any guidance on the "roll call board" function referred to at paragraph 9.1 of Policy number 412. 5. A copy of Policy number 412 - Mobilising policy, in its current version. For the avoidance of doubt I am not requesting Appendix 4, or any information concerning senior officer mobilising thresholds or predetermined attendance levels, and I would be content to receive the policy with that appendix withheld. 6. Paragraph 2.9 of Policy number 412 states that Brigade Control "will always aim to send the closest available resource (appliances and officers)", and paragraph 9.1 requires officers to inform Brigade Control of any changes in their availability, capability (attribute) or location. Please state how the location or proximity of an officer of Station Commander rank or above is established at the point of mobilising - that is, whether it is taken from a self-declared entry in StARS, from a declaration to Brigade Control, from vehicle or device location data, or by some other means. If this is set out in any document, a copy of that document would be a sufficient answer. 7. In relation to officer cars or staff cars (as distinct from fire appliances), please state whether either of the following is recorded, and by which system: (a) satellite navigation or AVLS/GPS vehicle location data; (b) radio status data. I am asking only whether such data is recorded and in which system - not for any data itself. 8. The Brigade's published records retention schedule (Policy number 879, issue date 29 September 2015, as released under reference 8932.2) contains an entry for "IM Corporate systems - StARS, Station Diary, Incident Management System (IMS) etc." but appears to contain no entry for mobilising or command-and-control system records, for AVLS or vehicle location data, or for rostering or officer availability data. Please state: (a) the retention period applied to each of those three categories of record, and where it is documented; (b) whether Policy number 879 has been superseded or replaced since 29 September 2015, and if so please provide the current schedule; (c) whether the retention period applied to StARS data has changed in the last five years, and if so what the previous period was and when it changed. 9. Where any record described above is held by a third party or contracted supplier on the Brigade's behalf, please state that fact and identify the category of record concerned. If any of these documents are already published, a link would be a sufficient response for that item. If you consider that any single item would exceed the appropriate cost limit under section 12, please answer the remaining items and advise me how that item could be refined - I would not wish the whole request to be treated as one aggregated request where each item is a discrete named document. I look forward to your response within 20 working days.
Response
Please see the response in the attached link below.
Documents
This is London Fire Brigade's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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