On 9 February 2026, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) published an independent assessment of Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service’s performance for residents in Bournemouth, Dorset. The report provides a detailed assessment of how well the combined service responds to emergencies and how it looks after its people and prevention work.
The findings follow a period of intense scrutiny of workplace culture at Dorset & Wiltshire. An independent culture review published in 2023 (led by Alex Johnson QFSM) found an “underlying culture of misogyny and sexism” and made recommendations for significant change, which the service has been working to implement.
Operational performance is a key part of the HMICFRS assessment, including how long it takes crews to reach emergencies. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has highlighted that average response times were 10 minutes and 46 seconds in 2023, raising questions about whether staffing levels and resourcing are adequate for the area.
The inspection also examines whether mobilisation — the system used to dispatch appliances to incidents — and the recurring technical faults identified in HMICFRS’s May 2025 revisit have been resolved. Local residents can use the official findings to judge whether recent leadership changes and the service’s reform programmes have improved public safety and workplace standards (the service appointed Andy Cole as Chief Fire Officer on 1 January 2025).
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