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17 Nov 2004 : Column 1598W—continued
Persistent Offenders
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research he has evaluated on whether persistent offenders are responsible for the majority of crime. [196702]
Paul Goggins: Annex B of "Criminal Justice: the way forward" (CM 5074), published in 2001, contains research which gives an estimate of the active offender population in England and Wales.
The research is based on the Home Office "Offenders Index" database which holds the criminal histories of everyone convicted of a serious offence since 1965.
Police
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what feedback he has received on National Policing Plans. [194864]
Ms Blears:
Consultation on the National Policing Plan 2005–08 took place from 30 September to 27 October. Responses have been received from key policing stakeholders and criminal justice partners. These will be considered as we prepare the National Policing Plan 2005–08 for publication.
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Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his policy is on the conclusions of the report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary on a future strategy for civilianization. [194869]
Ms Blears: Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary thematic inspection report "Modernising the Police Force" was published in July.
The recommendations highlighted in the report support work already under way by Government and within forces.
We welcome the contribution the report makes to the policing debate. The report provides a highly useful evidence base and benchmark of views from a wide cross section of the service, on how police staff are currently deployed and managed. The report will send out a general message of the increasing importance of the role of police staff.
We will continue to work with all stakeholders including the staff side, the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Association of Police Authorities and other police stakeholder groups to ensure that Workforce Modernisation remains at the centre of police reform.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what accountability procedures are in place for police authorities. [194907]
Ms Blears: Police authorities should both be held to account for their own performance and have adequate powers to hold police forces to account for performance. Local authority representatives are currently members of police authorities and this ensures that police authorities are tied into local democratic accountability. The White Paper, "Building Communities, Beating Crime: a better police service for the 21st century", published on 9 November considers options for national arrangements to make police authorities more visible, responsive and accountable to local communities. We are also exploring how police authorities might hold police forces more effectively to account for their responsiveness to public concerns about community safety.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library a copy of the most recent Senior Investigations Officers' Handbook. [197434]
Ms Blears: The Senior Investigating Officers' Handbook for the Investigation of Historical Institutional Child Abuse, published by the Association of Chief Police Officers, is an internal document for the police service. I therefore have no plans to place a copy of it in the Library.
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers there were in (a) Staffordshire and (b) Newcastle-under-Lyme in (i) 1997 and (ii) at the latest available date. [198584]
Ms Blears:
Information on police strength is set out in Table 1. The Newcastle-under-Lyme parliamentary constituency is part of the North Staffordshire Basic Command Unit (BCU) of the Staffordshire Police. Information on strength at BCU level is collected annually and reflects the position at the end of March.
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Information on BCU strength is only available from 2002. BCU strength between March 2002 and March 2004 is set out in Table 2. It is not possible to provide police numbers at constituency level.
(48) Data provided by Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate (RDS).
(49) August 2004 was collected separately outside of the normal data collection arrangements and has not been subject to the same validation as RDS data.
| Year (as at 31 March) | Number of police officers |
|---|---|
| 2002 | 269 |
| 2003 | Not available |
| 2004 | 301 |
The deployment of officers to BCUs is a matter for the Chief Constable (Mr. John Giffard QPM) and within the North Staffordshire BCU deployment of officers is a matter for the Divisional Commander.
Mr. Hogg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, when determining funding for police services in Lincolnshire for financial year 2005–06, he will make specific provision of £1.9 million to assist in covering the cost of police pensions in that year. [193841]
Ms Blears: I shall not be making a specific grant for pensions' costs next year. All police authorities will receive their fair share of available funding. 14.5 per cent. of formula funding is allocated to police pensions' costs. Allocations to individual police authorities will be based on projections supplied by forces to the Government Actuaries Department during the past year.
Police Bureaucracy Steering Group
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the members of the Police Bureaucracy Steering Group. [197896]
Ms Blears: The members of the Policing Bureaucracy Implementation Steering Group are as follows:
Police Funding
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much central Government grant was given to each police authority to counter terrorism in 2003–04. [195298]
Mr. Blunkett: For security reasons we would not wish to disclose the levels of funding given to individual police authorities with the exception of the Metropolitan Police Service. However I can say that in 2003–04 there was £59 million of direct grant made available to the Police Service in England and Wales for the purposes of countering terrorism. Of this, £47million was allocated to the Metropolitan Police and £12 million allocated to other provincial forces in England and Wales. In 2004–05 this direct grant has been increased to £84 million of which £61 million is allocated to the Metropolitan Police and £23 million to provincial forces.
Police Guidance (Local Discretion)
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidance he issues to police forces on the use of local discretion. [142925]
Ms Blears: I understand that the inquiry relates to the use of local discretion in stop and search issues.
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act Code A sets out the statutory requirements for officers, forces and police authorities in relation to stop and search. Code A was revised in August 2004 to take into account the requirements of recording stops.
In accordance with section 1.1 of the revision:
"Powers to stop and search must be used fairly, responsibly, with respect for people being searched and without unlawful discrimination. The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 makes it unlawful for police officers to discriminate on the grounds of race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality or national origins when using their powers."
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