To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers there were in the Nottinghamshire Constabulary in each year since 1997; and how many there will be in each year for which projections are available. [98325]

Information on police strength for Nottinghamshire Police is set out in the table.

Year (as at 31 March)	Police Officer Numbers	Civilian Support Staff Numbers
1997	2,323	1,003
1998	2,323	987
1999	2,225	1,039
2000	2,204	1,024
2001	2,212	1,039
2002	2,330	1,087

Under the Crime Fighting Fund (CFF) recruitment initiative Nottinghamshire Police have been allocated an additional 157 recruits over and above the force's previous recruitment plans for the three years to March 2003. Funding for these officers will continue in 2003–04. The CFF will continue in 2003/04 and we will fund 75 per cent of the cost of new recruits through CFF rather than 100 per cent as in the past three years. Nottinghamshire Police Authority has been allocated £96,000 which on the basis of 75 per cent funding should be sufficient for the force to recruit a further 17 police officers through this fund.Apart from ring-fenced provision for a particular purpose, such as the Crime Fighting Fund, decisions about the police budget and the allocation of resources, including numbers of officers, are matters for the Nottinghamshire Police Authority and the Chief Constable (Stephen Green QPM). It is therefore not possible to provide estimates of Nottinghamshire's police strength in future years.