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10 Dec 2007 : Column 91W—continued
| Table B: Patrol officers | ||||
| Percentage | ||||
| Year( 1) | Time spent on incident- related paperwork | Time spent on non incident- related paperwork | Total time spent on paperwork | Time spent on patrol |
| (1) Data was not collected before 2003. The information is taken from activity analysis, which is collected by all forces over a two-week period in each year and provides a snapshot of how officers are deployed. (2) Includes officers on foot/car/beat patrol, CID and traffic officers. (3) Data was not collected before 2003. | ||||
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she is taking to reduce the time spent by police officers on paperwork and administrative tasks; and if she will make a statement. [166996]
Mr. McNulty: The time spent by police officers on paperwork and other administrative duties remains an inevitable, but often necessary part of the process of protecting the public. We are, however, taking measures to reduce the time spent on these activities in order to increase the time police officers are able to spend on front line duties. These measures include: improving custody management working practices and processes; streamlining and providing greater local flexibility over performance management requirements; and providing a new £50 million capital fund to support wider access to time and paperwork saving innovative electronic fingerprinting and mobile data technologies.
Reducing bureaucracy is one of the four key strands in Sir Ronnie Flanagan’s review of policing. There were 13 recommendations on this area alone in his interim report published in September this year.
Police: Early Retirement
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidelines are issued to police authorities on applications for early retirement by senior police officers under investigation. [170144]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 3 December 2007]: All police officers are entitled to retire after 25 years service (and on full pension after 30 years) unless they are suspended from duty as a result of an investigation into their conduct, when they can retire before the procedures have been concluded only with the agreement of the chief officer or the relevant police authority depending on their rank. The provisions relating to this are contained in regulation 14 and the determination at annex D of the Police Regulations 2003. Guidance, which is available to police forces and police authorities, is contained in the Home Office Guidance on Police Unsatisfactory Performance, Complaints and Misconduct Procedures; there is further clarification of the provisions relating to retirement by officers under investigation/suspension in Home Office circulars 55/2003 and 8/2005, which are available on the Home Office website.
Police: Emergency Calls
Mr. Boris Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average time taken to respond to an emergency telephone call by police was in (a) England, (b) London and (c) each London borough in each year since 1997. [166940]
Mr. McNulty: This information is not collected centrally.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what average police emergency response times were in Hampshire for each year since 1997. [172311]
Mr. McNulty: This is a matter for the Chief Constable of Hampshire constabulary.
Police: Firearms
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether Operation Kratos remains in force. [164095]
Mr. McNulty: Specialised operational tactics to deal with the threat of a deadly attack are operational matters for the police. The Association of Chief Police Officers published its review of the police response to the threat of suicide terrorism on 7 March 2006, which concluded that tactics to deal with the threat of suicide terrorism remained fit for purpose.
All police use of firearms is subject to the usual law on the use of force. The Criminal Law Act 1967 provides that the police may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances to effect an arrest or to prevent crime. The law applies to the operational tactics developed by police to deal with suspected suicide bombers as it does in any other case.
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many armed police officers served each London borough in the latest period for which figures are available. [167416]
Mr. McNulty: Information on the number of armed police officers is not collected by the Home Office. Information on authorised firearms officers is collected at police force area level, and the latest published figures show that on 31 March 2006 there were 2,331 AFOs in the Metropolitan police and 86 in the City of London police.
Police: Hillingdon
Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) police officers and (b) police community support officers there were in the London borough of Hillingdon in each year since 1997 for which figures are available. [171089]
Mr. McNulty: Police officer figures for Hillingdon have been collected centrally since 2003, and police community support officer figures since 2005. They are shown in the following table.
| Number of police officers and police community support officers in the London borough of Hillingdon: 2003-07 | ||
| 31 March each year | Police officers (FTE)( 1) | Police community support officers (FTE)( 1) |
| (1) All figures are full time equivalents (FTE) rounded to the nearest whole number. (2) Figures relate to 30 June, and are from an ad hoc collection. These figures may not be directly comparable to the others in the table. | ||
Police: Information and Communications Technology
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much has been spent since 1997 on information technology for police forces in Britain; and what UK computer networks exist to ensure that forces are aware of previous criminal activity of people they are investigating. [169843]
Mr. McNulty: It is not possible to provide the total expenditure on police Information Technology systems since 1997 as this information is not held centrally.
Police forces use a variety of national computer systems linked to their own networks, to identify individuals that may have been involved in previous criminal activity and to assist their investigations. These comprise:
The Police National Computer (PNC)
IMPACT Nominal Index (INI)
National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IDENT1)
The Violent and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR)
The National Video Identification Database
In addition, police forces can access the National DNA Database, although this is not a database which holds information on previous criminal convictions.
Police: Manpower
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers in England and Wales were in post on the most recent date for which figures are available, broken down by rank; and how many in each rank were (a) black and (b) Asian. [165672]
Mr. McNulty: The most recent date for which figures are available is 31 March 2007; these data are given in the following table:
| Police officer strength (full-time equivalent) in England and Wales, as at 31 March 2007 | |||
| Police ranks | Total all police officers | Total Black or Black British | Total Asian or Asian British |
| (1) ACPO refers to the Association of Chief Police Officers. Note: This table contains full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. | |||
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) police officers, (b) police community support officers and (c) police ancillary staff were employed in each London borough in each year since 1997. [167410]
Mr. McNulty: The requested information has been collected centrally at London borough level since 2003 only. It is shown in the following tables.
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