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16 Apr 2007 : Column 475W—continued
Police: Advisory Groups
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the role is of independent advisory groups for police constabularies and authorities; how they are appointed; who the members are of each such group; what qualifications are recognised for this role; for how long members serve; what remuneration members receive; to whom such groups report; and if he will make a statement. [129568]
Mr. McNulty: Independent advisory groups have been set up by a number of police forces at the discretion of the chief constable and the role, composition and means of appointment are a matter for them.
Police: Bolton
Mr. Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many police officers were stationed in Bolton in each year since 1997; [130382]
(2) how many community support officers were provided in Bolton in each year since 1997. [130409]
Mr. McNulty: Information on the number of police officers in basic command units is collected annually and has only been available since March 2002. For Police Community Support Officers BCU numbers has only been collected since June 2005. The data for the Bolton Metropolitan Borough Division is set out in the following table. The deployment of police officers and police community support officers to basic command units and to other specialist operational units is a matter for the Chief Constable.
| Bolton Metropolitan Borough Division | ||
| Number of Police Officers( 1) | Number of Police Community Support Officers( 2) | |
| (1) As at 31 March. (2) As at 30 June. | ||
Police: Business
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps his Department is taking to encourage police authorities to improve links with local people and businesses. [126025]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 13 March 2007]: Section 96 of the Police Act 1996 places a duty on police authorities to make arrangements for obtaining the views of people in the force area about matters concerning the policing of the area. It is for the police authority to determine the means of doing so after consulting the chief constable.
The standard membership of a police authority is 17 of which five are independent members who are local people who represent a wide range of interests in the police area and with relevant skills.
The Department is working with the Association of Chief Police Officers to ensure effective engagement on crime against businesses.
Police: Cadets
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he has taken to encourage young people to join the Police Cadets. [128852]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 20 March 2007 ]: Cadet schemes are run locally by a number of forces. Forces undertake their own initiatives to attract young people from their local communities. Cadet programmes are intended to give young people an idea of what it is like to be a police officer and to help forge links within local communities. Cadet activities include:
Crime prevention
First aid
Self-defence
Sport and fitness
Police procedures and law.
Cadets also take part in local crime prevention initiatives and stewarding at events.
Police: Community Support Officers
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police community support officers were employed as of 31 December 2006, broken down by police authority area. [130049]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 26 March 2007]: The most recently available data are published in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin, Police Strength in England and Wales, 30(th) September 2006 (04/07), and are given in the following table.
The bulletin is available in the Library of the House and can be downloaded from:
Table three in the bulletin contains the police community support officer numbers in England and Wales as at 30 September 2006.
Police: Databases
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the current timetable is for implementation of the Police National Database; [127293]
(2) what the timetable is for the implementation of the IMPACT Cross Regional Information Sharing Project programme; [127294]
(3) what the cost of the IMPACT programme has been; and what he expects its projected final cost to be. [127298]
Mr. McNulty [holding answers 13 March 2007]: As my hon. Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, the hon. Member for Enfield, North (Joan Ryan) said during the Adjournment debate called by the hon. Member for Barnsley, Central (Mr. Illsley) on 28 February 2007, Official Report , column 307WH, we are currently evaluating options for delivering maximum value to the police service through the IMPACT programme while capitalising as much as possible on the investment already made by the Home Office and police forces. We expect to be making an announcement on the results of that evaluation shortly and this will include a timetable for implementing future IMPACT solutions.
As at the end of January, the Home Office had invested £64.9 million in the IMPACT programme. This includes the successful delivery of the IMPACT Nominal Index; the delivery of a programme to improve information management in police forces and the allocation of substantial grant funding to forces to enable them to prepare their data for sharing. The projected final costs of the programme will be reassessed once a decision has been made on the options evaluation. We will be able to say more on this in the 4th Report on Progress on the Bichard Inquiry Recommendations, which we plan to publish in the spring.
Police: Equal Opportunities
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what targets are set for police authorities on the recruitment of police officers on the basis of (a) gender and (b) ethnicity. [126026]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 8 March 2007]: In 1999, the Home Secretary published race equality employment targets for the police service to be achieved by 2009. An annual report is published showing the progress that the service has made against those targets.
While there are no comparable targets for gender, the Police Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF) includes performance indicators on female officer representation.
The Home Office is committed to providing equality of opportunity for police officers and staff regardless of gender. The Home Office encourages forces to adopt positive action initiatives to promote the recruitment of women officers. The Police Minister chairs the Women in Policing Steering Group. The group has sponsored guidance on flexible working, and gender equality schemes in forces. It has recently commissioned work on whether further targets should be set for the recruitment, retention and progression of female police officers.
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