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19 Feb 2007 : Column 128W—continued


Police: Forms

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the net change in the number of police reporting forms since 1997. [120397]

Mr. McNulty: The information required to make such an assessment is not held centrally.

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]

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.


19 Feb 2007 : Column 129W
Crime fighting fund police numbers threshold 2004 to 2006
England and Wales North Yorkshire
Target strength Actual strength( 1) (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. [120384]

Mr. McNulty: 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


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. [121461]

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:

Police: Ports

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many full-time equivalent officers there are in each of the ports police forces. [120405]


19 Feb 2007 : Column 130W

Mr. McNulty: Ports police forces are non-Home Office forces, with officers of these forces being sworn in as constables under section 79 of the Harbours, Docks and Piers Clauses Act 1847. As these police forces do not come under the administration of the Home Office, the requested information is not collected centrally by the Department.

Pornography: Children

Lorely Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convictions there have been of those under the age of (a) 18 and (b) 16 years for the possession of child pornography. [120654]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The following table shows data from the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform, namely the number of defendants under 18 years convicted for the possession of child pornography.

Number of defendants aged under 18 years and under 16 years convicted of selected child pornography offences at all courts, England and Wales, 2005( 1, 2)
Statute Offence Aged 10 to 15 Aged 16 to 17 Total

Protection of Children Act 1978 Section 1 as amended by Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, Sec 84 and Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 S.41(1).

Take, permit to be taken, or to make distribute or publish indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children

3

6

9

Criminal Justice Act 1988 Sec. 160 as amended by the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000.

Possession of an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph.

2

2

Total

3

8

11

(1) These data are on the principal offence basis. (2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.

Prison Sentences

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average prison sentence handed down by courts was for (a) violent crimes and (b) non-violent crimes in each of the last five years; and what the average sentence served was of prisoners in each category who were released in each of these years. [118393]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The average custodial sentence length for these offences in the years 2001 to 2005 is given in the table. However, it should be noted that
19 Feb 2007 : Column 131W
comparisons between 2001 and 2005 are problematic, since offenders receiving an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection for a serious offence from April 2005 would previously have received a lengthy determinate sentence that would have been included in the calculation of average custodial sentence length. These longer sentences are now effectively excluded from the calculation.

Information on the average time served for all offences is published in Table 10.1 of “Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2005” (Home Office Statistical Bulletin No. 18/06) (on the Home Office website at:

Average custodial sentence length for violent and other offences, England and Wales, 2001 to 2005
Offence Average custodial sentence length( 1 ) (months)

Violent offences( 2)

2001

24.4

2002

26.7

2003

27.2

2004

26.8

2005

(3)24.8

Other offences( 4)

2001

9.2

2002

9.5

2003

9.5

2004

9.7

2005

(3)9.8

(1) Excluding life and indeterminate sentences. (2) Violence against the person, sexual offences and robbery. (3) Offenders receiving an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection for a serious offence from April 2005 would previously have received a lengthy determinate sentence that would have been included in the calculation of average custodial sentence length. These longer sentences are now effectively excluded from the calculation. This may result in a decrease in average custodial sentence lengths. (4) All other offences (indictable and summary). Note: Although care is taken in collating and analysing the returns used to compile these figures, the data are of necessity subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. Consequently, although figures are shown to the last digit in order to provide a comprehensive record of the information collected, they are not necessarily accurate to the last digit shown. Source: DS-NOMS, Home Office.

Prison Service

Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what mechanisms exist to monitor the implementation of the Service Level Agreement at HM Prison Wandsworth; and if he will make a statement. [110921]

Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 25 January 2007]: The London Regional Offender Manager (ROM) monitors the performance at HMP Wandsworth through its Service Level Agreement with HM Prison Service.


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