To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 4 June 2007, Official Report, columns 110-11W, on speed limits: cameras, what additional duties have been given to traffic police officers since 1997 in addition to their basic function as traffic regulators. (141418)

[holding answer 11 June 2007]: The Roads Policing Strategy Statement, agreed in January 2005 between the Home Office, Department for Transport and the Association of Chief Police Officers sets five main objectives for roads policing, whether undertaken by dedicated traffic police officers or others. These are: to deny criminals the use of the roads, to reduce road casualties, to tackle thee threat of terrorism, to reduce antisocial use of the roads and to enhance public confidence and reassurance by patrolling the roads. Within this framework, the allocation of resources and use of officers for different functions is an operational matter for individual chief officers.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 4 June 2007, Official Report, columns 110-1W, on speed limits: cameras, what (a) average and (b) total overtime was worked by dedicated traffic patrol police officers in each year between 1997 and 2006; what the (i) average and (ii) total mileage per annum of police traffic patrol vehicles was in each year; and how many dedicated police traffic patrol vehicles were in operation in each year. (141419)

[holding answer 11 June 2007]: This information is not collected centrally.