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Mr. Barnes
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list (a) the establishments and (b) the current strength of each constabulary in England and Wales. [17199]
Mr. Michael
The Police and Magistrates' Courts Act 1994 removed the power for the Home Secretary to set police establishments. It was left to individual chief officers of police to determine the number of officers in their force. The strength of each force at 30 September 1997 is set out in the table.
| Police force numbers for England and Wales (provisional) As at 30 September 1997 | |
| Force | Number of police officers |
| Avon and Somerset | 2,973 |
| Bedfordshire | 1,081 |
| Cambridgeshire | 1,228 |
| Cheshire | 2,029 |
| City of London | 836 |
| Cleveland | 1,481 |
| Cumbria | 1,162 |
| Derbyshire | 1,757 |
| Devon and Cornwall | 2,910 |
| Dorset | 1,279 |
| Durham | 1,479 |
| Dyfed-Powys | 1,008 |
| Essex | 2,944 |
| Gloucestershire | 1,107 |
| Greater Manchester | 6,908 |
| Gwent | 1,229 |
| Hampshire | 3,481 |
| Herfordshire | 1,738 |
| Humberside | 2,030 |
| Kent | 3,301 |
| Lancashire | 3,281 |
| Leicestershire | 1,958 |
| Lincolnshire | 1,189 |
| Merseyside | 4,222 |
| Metropolitan Police | 26,391 |
| Norfolk | 1,440 |
| Northamptonshire | 1,181 |
| Northumbria | 3,685 |
| North Wales | 1,370 |
| North Yorkshire | 1,383 |
| Nottinghamshire | 2,317 |
| South Wales | 2,990 |
| South Yorkshire | 3,158 |
| Staffordshire | 2,230 |
| Police force numbers for England and Wales (provisional) As at 30 September 1997 | |
| Force | Number of police officers |
| Suffolk | 1,198 |
| Surrey | 1,608 |
| Sussex | 3,040 |
| Thames Valley | 3,705 |
| Warwickshire | 914 |
| West Mercia | 2,031 |
| West Midlands | 7,079 |
| West Yorkshire | 5,250 |
| Wiltshire | 1,167 |
| Total | 124,751 |