It comes under the administrative and legislative control of Surrey County Council, acting as the fire authority who fund the service by collecting a precept via council tax, and from central government funds, known as a grant settlement, and provide the political leadership for the service.

It is part of Surrey County Council's Community Protection Group which includes other citizen focused services including trading standards, coronary service, emergency planning, military partnership, community resilience and corporate health and safety.

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service employs approximately 800 staff and looks after a population of over 1 million people spread across an area of 1,663 km2 (642 square miles).

Historically, fire cover was set to national standards that were defined back in the 1930s but today are based on local risk.

On a scale of outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service was rated as follows: