Police

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of police time was spent on frontline duties by (a) Suffolk, (b) Bedfordshire, (c) Cambridgeshire, (d) Essex, (e) Hertfordshire and (f) Norfolk constabularies in each year since 1997. (118671)

Information on time spent by police officers on front line duties has been collected since 2003-04 and is set out in the following table.

*Percentage of time spent on front line policing—eastern region forces*
Percentage
Force	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2008¹
Bedfordshire	63.7	63.3	62.1	68.5
Cambridgeshire	61.7	60.3	70.7	69.3
Essex	56.9	60.9	62.7	70.3
Hertfordshire	60.8	62.9	64.2	73.0
Norfolk	59.8	62.9	66.7	70.3
Suffolk	62.4	60.6	59.5	68.5
¹ Target.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people are employed in non-geographic police forces; and what the total budget was for all such forces in the last period for which figures are available. (119131)

The non-geographical police forces, i.e. those which are established by legislation other than the Police Act 1996, are the responsibly of a number of sponsoring Secretaries of State but not the Home Secretary. The Home Office does not collect data on their total staffing and budgets.

Volume 457: debated on Monday 19 February 2007