Arson
Some Facts and Figures about Arson
1. Arson can be defined as the willful or deliberate setting fire to another 's house, car or similar property. Arson is the largest single cause of major fires in the UK. As a growing problem, it has attracted increasing and critical attention of the efforts to tackle it. At its worst, arson leads to loss of life and significant financial damage but persistent and pervasive minor arson also sets a strongly detrimental (and visually harmful) tone to deprived communities. In some areas, arson now accounts for 70% of all fires, rising to 82% in certain localities.
2. Arson is a complex and serious crime and carries a maximum punishment of a life sentence. It has a wide variety of causes: vandalism; playing with fire; crime concealment;
revenge; fraud; and mental illness to name just a few. The number of arson fires both in their own right and as a proportion of the total has been increasing at a startling rate
for some time. The number of malicious primary fires attended by the fire service has more than doubled over the past decade and now stands at over 85,000. The number of arson
casualties over the same period of time has shown a similar rate of increase.
The bar charts below show the number of different types of fires recorded in 1999.
3. The cost of arson fires to society has now reached over £1.3 billion a year. In the last ten years, there have been around 1.7 million arson fires, resulting in 22,000 injuries and 1,100 deaths. Between 1986 and 1996 the number of deliberately started fires increased every year. This means that in an average week, arson results in:
3,500 deliberately started fires;
50 injuries;
2 deaths;
and a cost to society of at least £25 million.
4. The graph below gives details of the total number of deliberate fires as recorded by the fire service, by the police in 1997 and shows the number cleared up and the convictions resulting.
The Arson Scoping Study
5. It was against this background of a rapidly increasing number of deliberately started fires but a falling number of police prosecutions and cautions that the Arson Scoping Study was commissioned in May 1998. It was intended to provide Home Office Ministers with a snapshot of the arson problem in England and Wales; to shed light on concerns about the current arrangements to control the arson problem; and to point to current examples of success to inform future approaches. It was not intended to be a full-scale review of such a multi-faceted and complex crime. The study was, however, able to show those areas that required further consideration and to make proposals how these can be incorporated within a broad programme of work to enable an effective and concerted national arson prevention effort to be put in place.
6. The need to have effective arrangements in place to tackle arson is brought into focus when it is set in the context of the Government’s aims of providing safer communities. Efforts to tackle arson fires contribute directly to two of the key departmental aims of the Home Office. These aims are:
i. "The reduction of crime, particularly juvenile crime; and
ii. "The reduction in the incidence of fire and related death, injury and damage".
7. Combating arson also supports the Home Office’s agenda on social exclusion - those on the lowest incomes suffering rates of arson fires thirty-one times higher than elsewhere and being sixteen times more likely to die as a result of a fire.
8. The study was conducted by Lorraine Watson from the Home Office Research and Statistics Directorate. The purpose of the study was to review the existing arrangements for tackling the problem of non-accidental fires and associated activities in England and Wales and, more importantly, to highlight the ways in which these arrangements can be improved. As part of the study the following issues were addressed:
the size and cost of the arson problem;
identify the different agencies who have or might have an influence in tackling non- accidental fires and examine the various approaches taken by these key players;
the variety of motivational factors which lead to non-accidental fires being tarted; and
The main issues of concern regarding existing approaches (why malicious fires appear to be on the increase and why enforcement action is on the decline).
9. The Scoping Study was published in May 1999 and made twenty-two recommendations that will form the basis of a programme of work that will comprise a Government-led strategy to put in place more effective arson control arrangements. Within the report the key features are: -
The clear need for a multi-agency approach to tackling arson at both the national and local level.
The assumption by the Home Office of the central role for directing efforts to combat arson.
A continuing but revised role for the Arson Prevention Bureau within this new approach.
The need for improved co-operation, information sharing and the use of common terminology in tackling arson coupled with an extension of good practice protocols devised by individual fire brigades, police forces and insurers.
10. Written comments were invited on the report’s findings and recommendations. In addition, a series of regional seminars were undertaken in order to explain these to key stakeholders and to elicit responses. The general tenor of the responses received was very supportive of the Arson Control Forum.
11. In the light of this, Ministers decided to accept the report in full. In particular, Ministers agreed to the establishment of the Arson Control Forum under the chairmanship of HM Chief Inspector for Fire Services, Graham Meldrum. Representatives from key stakeholders including the police and fire services, the insurance sector, local government, industry and staff representative bodies were also invited to serve on the Forum.
12. The Forum is intended to provide the strategic direction to the arson prevention/ investigation programme and will address the facets of the growing menace of arson. A draft outline of its proposed Terms of Reference is set out below. These reflect the findings and recommendations set out in the report of the Arson Scoping Study and can be broadly expressed as follows: -
To work towards a reduction in the number of deliberate fires and related deaths, injuries and damage.
To maintain a strategic overview of all general arson prevention/investigation matters.
To develop, monitor and support initiatives aimed at improving standards of arson prevention and detection and raising public awareness of arson prevention/investigation issues.
To promote partnership and co-ordination of effort in order to allow all stakeholders to contribute to the development of arson prevention/investigation policy.
To monitor and contribute to, improvements in the recording and detection of arson in the United Kingdom.
To monitor, and contribute to, arson prevention/investigation work conducted by European and International bodies.
13. The Forum will have its own budget allocated from the Home Office Crime
Reduction Programme (Targeted Policing Initiative). This is to enable any necessary research and developmental work to be undertaken. The following areas of research have been identified for early attention: -
a) Juvenile firesetting – the majority of those cautioned or found guilty of arson are male juveniles aged typically 10-13 years. This is an area of particular concern and most fire brigades undertake some form of juvenile firesetter intervention/ education programme. However, there are no official guidelines or endorsed standard schemes and there has been little formal evaluation of them. The existing schemes require validation and formal guidance and best practice needs to be produced.
b) Motivation of arsonists – little research has been carried out to quantify the proportion of arson incidents attributable to a particular motive. Different motives require different prevention/deterrence approaches. Research is to be commissioned into this aspect of arson, building upon the preliminary findings of the Arson Task Force in the West End of Newcastle; and
c) Correlation between car crime & vehicle arson – the number of deliberate vehicle fires has more than trebled in the past decade & they now account for over half the 86,000 arson fires that fire brigades attend each year in the UK. Malicious car fires cost the insurers around £77m per annum & result in around 20 deaths & a further 80 injuries. There appears to be a strong correlation between the theft of motor vehicles & malicious car fires & the trends between the two are similar. It is unclear, however, whether the fires are started by those who stole the vehicle in the first place in order to cover the traces of some other crime or some other reason (i.e. fraud) or whether the vehicle had been abandoned & then subjected to an act of vandalism by a third party. Correlation between vehicle fires and thefts means that success in achieving goals on reducing vehicle crime will have corresponding benefits in reducing vehicle fires. Work is needed to establish the relationship between car thefts and subsequent car fires in order to inform policy decisions regarding remedial measures.
d) Miscellaneous Projects & Initiatives - The Arson Scoping Study identified a number of other areas where research might prove useful (i.e. reasons for the failure of prosecutions for arson, fire investigation techniques). These will need to be considered and worked up into viable projects by the Arson Control Forum.
e) Central Guidance and Publicity Campaigns - The Arson Prevention Bureau produces guidance covering a number of aspects of the arson problem. These will require revising and updating from time to time and additional guidance. Further details of those guidance documents currently available can be found on the Arson Prevention Bureau’s web site.
Last update: 23 October 2002