To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) police officers and (b) police community support officers were employed by each police force in March. (92374)

The available information relates to police service strength and is published in Table 1 for Police Officer strength and Table 10a for Police Community Support Officer strength of 'Police Service Strength, England and Wales 31 March 2006'. This report was published on 26 July 2006 and is available in the Library of the House and on:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/hosb1306 .pdf

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) community support officers and (b) frontline policemen were recruited for the Milton Keynes Basic Command Unit in each year between 1997 and 2005. (91492)

Milton Keynes is a Basic Command Unit (BCU) within the Thames Valley Police force.

The requested data are not collected centrally. Available data for the number of police community support officers annually recruited relate only to force area level and from 2002-03 onwards. Available data for the number of police officers annually recruited are only available at force area level.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many serving police officers from English and Welsh constabularies are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. (92509)

The number of officers may vary and I am therefore answering this question in relation to a specific day. On 4 October there were 15 serving officers from police forces in England and Wales serving in Iraq and none in Afghanistan. There were also 14 individuals in Iraq either from other forces, or retired or working as police staff, and one officer from another force in Afghanistan.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he plans to take to ensure that measures to recruit ethnic minorities and more women to the police services in England do not unlawfully discriminate against other applicants. (92407)

Police recruitment is managed locally within a national application and assessment and selection framework. Individual forces are therefore responsible for managing their campaigns.

We support forces in taking positive action to increase the number of recruits from under-represented minority groups in order to make the police service fully representative of the communities it serves. While we encourage forces to take every possible step within existing legislation to improve their diversity we do not support positive discrimination, which is illegal.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received in relation to current and future funding levels for Greater Manchester police; and if he will make a statement. (93003)

The Secretary of State has received one letter, dated 9 October, from the hon. member for Cheadle. We have received no other recent representations about current and future funding for Greater Manchester police authority.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many firearms were seized by Greater Manchester police in each of the last five years. (93007)

The requested data are not held centrally.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost was of policing demonstrations on 22 July against the new vivisection laboratory in Oxford. (91575)

Operational matters are not routinely disclosed.