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Community Support Officers: Manpower

Volume 468: debated on Monday 26 November 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police community support officers there were in each of the last four years in each police force area. (165674)

Figures for the four years from 31 March 2004 to 31 March 2007, the most recent published period, are given in the following table.

Police community support officer strength1 (FTE)2 by police force: 31 March 2004 to 31 March 2007

Police force

31 March 2004

31 March 20053

31 March 20063

31 March 20073

Avon and Somerset

45

139

130

302

Bedfordshire

12

40

41

83

Cambridgeshire

57

86

101

184

Cheshire

50

52

75

176

Cleveland

77

75

100

114

Cumbria

0

17

17

85

Derbyshire

0

43

42

181

Devon and Cornwall

51

74

74

317

Dorset

8

47

61

122

Durham

28

69

67

142

Essex

86

179

192

388

Gloucestershire

54

72

72

169

Greater Manchester

173

269

251

763

Hampshire

0

26

30

296

Hertfordshire

46

98

139

223

Humberside

0

20

20

194

Kent

59

105

97

203

Lancashire

110

161

184

374

Leicestershire

41

103

136

216

Lincolnshire

38

75

78

147

London, City of

0

14

11

36

Merseyside

72

170

196

332

Metropolitan Police

1,463

2,147

2,315

3,694

Norfolk

33

68

65

176

Northamptonshire

10

37

40

129

Northumbria

51

126

129

248

North Yorkshire

52

75

71

147

Nottinghamshire

56

108

112

217

South Yorkshire

59

124

121

302

Staffordshire

7

63

70

203

Suffolk

15

34

30

123

Surrey

56

115

126

203

Sussex

83

228

257

352

Thames Valley

7

98

130

213

Warwickshire

25

56

64

127

West Mercia

57

81

85

217

West Midlands

39

219

252

644

West Yorkshire

265

394

462

690

Wiltshire

23

41

57

121

Dyfed-Powys

5

25

26

77

Gwent

45

77

76

105

North Wales

0

59

58

145

South Wales

59

107

111

314

Total England and Wales

3,418

6,214

6,769

13,497

1 This table contains full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Because of rounding, there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of the constituent items.

2 Full-time equivalent includes those on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave.

3 Strength figures as at 31 March 2005 onwards include those staff on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. Therefore these figures are not comparable with those provided for other years in the table.