Police: Manpower

Miss McIntosh

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many additional police officers the Government made a commitment to deliver (a) in England and Wales and (b) in North Yorkshire in each of the last five years. (118175)

The Crime Fighting Fund, introduced in April 2000, provided specific grant for police forces to recruit 9,650 additional police officers over and above their own recruitment plans in the four years to March 2004. There was a target for police numbers to reach 132,500 by March 2004.

From April 2004 the rules of the Crime Fighting Fund worked in such a way as to require forces to maintain police numbers above an annually determined level. The following table sets out the Crime Fighting Fund threshold and actual strength achieved for England and Wales and for North Yorkshire police for each year from 2004.

In December 2006 we announced that the system of penalties for falling below target strength was suspended following representations from the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of Police Authorities.

North Yorkshire’s share of the Crime Fighting Fund was sufficient to recruit an additional 72 police officers—four in 2000-01, 39 in 2001-02, 25 in 2002-03 and four in 2003-04. Since 2004 North Yorkshire has received £1.95 million in continuation funding for these posts.

*Crime fighting fund police numbers threshold 2004 to 2006*
	England and Wales	North Yorkshire
	Target strength	Actual strength¹ (31 March)	Target strength	Actual strength (31 March)
2003-04	132,500	139,200	1,533	1,529
2004-05	137,459	141,230	1,529	1,543
2005-06	136,310	141,381	1,495	1,636
¹ Total police officer strength including officers on secondment published in Home Office statistics bulletins on police numbers.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total cost of pay in the police service was in each year since 1997-98; and how many staff were employed in the police service in each year. (120384)

The answers are given in the following tables.

*(a) National Police Staff (FTE)*
	Police Officers	PCSOs	Staff	Total
1997	125,051	—	53,011	178,062
1998	124,756	—	52,975	177,731
1999	123,841	—	53,031	176,872
2000	121,956	—	53,227	175,183
2001	123,476	—	54,588	178,064
2002	127,267	—	58,909	186,176
2003	131,426	1,176	63,105	195,707
2004	137,105	3,418	68,693	209,216
2005	139,495	6,214	71 ,209	216,918
2006	139,633	6,769	74,563	220,965

*(b) Total employee salaries (from CIPFA police statistics)*
Actual	£000
1997-98	4,958,932
1998-99	5,243,191
1999-2000	5,445,375
2000-01	5,651,442
2001-02	6,001,783
2002-03	6,422,610
2003-04	7,023,401
2000-05	7,554,626
2005-06	8,842,405

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers per thousand of the population there are (a) in England and Wales and (b) in each of the police forces in the Yorkshire and the Humber region. (121461)

These data have previously been published in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin, Police Service Strength, England and Wales, 31st March 2006 (13/06), which is available in the Library of the House and can be downloaded from:

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

Volume 457: debated on Monday 19 February 2007