asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether there is a continuing advertising campaign for the recruitment of black police officers; and if he will list for the longest convenient period for the Metropolitan Police, Merseyside police, West Midlands police, Thames Valley police and Avon and Somerset authorities, the number of black police officers, their rank and, wherever possible, their ethnic classification.

National police recruitment advertising aims to appeal to all

			Metropolitan police	Merseyside police	West Midlands police	Thames Valley police	Avon and Somerset police
Number serving at 31 December—
1970	…	…	8	1	2	1	2
1971	…	…	11	2	4	1	2
1972	…	…	13	2	5	1	2
1973	…	…	19	2	7	2	3
1974	…	…	36	2	13	5	4
1975	…	…	39	4	18	6	5
1976	…	…	72	4	26	3	4
1977	…	…	82	5	26	3	5
1978	…	…	85*	5	30*	3	6
* Including one sergeant.

Details of the country of origin of those serving in the Metropolitan Police are as follows:

West Indies	32
United Kingdom	21
	including 1 sergeant
India	9
Kenya	7

Uganda	4
Cyprus	2
Guyana	2
St. Helena	2
South Africa	2
Sri Lanka	1
Malaysia	1
Mauritius	1
Germany	1

Details of country of origin are not available centrally for the other forces named.

Department	Total of systems analysis, programming and operating staff	Major tasks
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food	141	Subsidy payments, payroll, statistics
Civil Service Department	290	Payroll, accounting, staff records, bureau work
HM Customs and Excise	374	Value Added Tax, statistics
Ministry of Defence	2,218	Bill paying, financial and accounting, stock control, payroll, stores codification and cataloguing, personnel records, technical maintenance data, bureau work
Department of Education and Science	85	Educational statistics, teachers super-annuation.
Department of Employment Group	185	Pay, statistics, Professional and Executive Register, vacancy matching.
Department of the Environment	292	Financial statistics, integrated accounting, payroll