To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police community support officers there were in each of the east midlands police forces in (a) 2001 and (b) 2006. (120733)

These data are published in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin series—Police Service Strength, England and Wales. The latest available bulletin contains data as at 30 September 2006, is available in the Library and can be downloaded from:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/hosb0407.pdf

Table 3 in the bulletin contains the numbers of police community support officers in each of the east midlands police forces. Police community support officers were introduced in statute in 2002, therefore data are not available prior to 2002-03.