asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the strength of the drugs squad for each police force in England and Wales for each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.
Figures are readily available only for the two previous years and are given in the table. The responsibilities of drugs squads vary between forces and the figures are therefore not necessarily directly comparable.
Force
| 1 January 1984
| 1 January 1985
|
| Avon & Somerset | 25 | 25 |
| Bedfordshire | 7 | 8 |
| Cambridgeshire | 7 | 9 |
| Cheshire | 8 | 14 |
| Cleveland | 10 | 13 |
| Cumbria | 3 | 10 |
| Derbyshire | 10 | 10 |
| Devon & Cornwell | 21 | 24 |
| Dorset | 12 | 11 |
| Durham | 7 | 8 |
| Essex | 7 | 8 |
| Gloucestershire | 9 | 10 |
| Greater Manchester | 21 | 22 |
| Hampshire | 23 | 25 |
| Hertfordshire | 5 | 10 |
| Humberside | 14 | 14 |
| Kent | 14 | 11 |
| Lancashire | 28 | 32 |
| Leicestershire | 11 | 13 |
| Lincolnshire | 8 | 8 |
| London, City of | — | — |
| Merseyside | 11 | 14 |
| Metropolitan Police | 38 | 38 |
| Norfolk | 8 | 9 |
| Northamptonshire | 5 | 5 |
| Northumbria | 14 | 15 |
| North Yorkshire | 10 | 11 |
| Nottinghamshire | 13 | 13 |
| South Yorkshire | 17 | 17 |
| Staffordshire | 12 | 12 |
| Suffolk | 12 | 13 |
| Surrey | 6 | 6 |
| Sussex | 18 | 21 |
| Thames Valley | 18 | 18 |
| Warwickshire | 8 | 8 |
| West Mercia | 18 | 18 |
| West Midlands | 37 | 43 |
| West Yorkshire | 29 | 29 |
| Wiltshire | 7 | 6 |
| Dyfed Powys | 9 | 9 |
| Gwent | 7 | 7 |
| North Wales | 8 | 11 |
| South Wales | 23 | 22 |
| Total | 578 | 630 |