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. Mr. McNulty 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |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.| | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Hoban 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. Mr. McNulty The answers are given in the following tables. -------------------------------------------- | |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| -------------------------------------------- --------------------- |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| --------------------- Philip Davies 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. Mr. McNulty 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