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14 Jan 2008 : Column 1064W—continued


Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer of 26 February 2007, Official Report, columns 1056-60W and 1072-6W, on police, if she will provide figures for 2007. [174217]

Mr. McNulty: The management of the police estate and allocation of resources are matters for each police authority and the chief officer, who are responsible for assessing local needs.

Latest published statistics on police officer numbers can be found in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin (no.13/07) “Police Service Strength, England and Wales, 31 March 2007”. A copy has been placed in the Library. It is also available on the Home Office website at:

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which police forces use mobile police stations; if she will take steps to require such forces to provide more (a) officers on the beat and (b) high speed police cars; and if she will make a statement. [176066]

Mr. McNulty: The management of the police estate and allocation of resources are matters for each police authority and the chief officer, who are responsible for assessing local needs.

Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of police posts which have been civilianised in (a) Northamptonshire and (b) England since the publication of Building Communities, Beating Crime in November 2004. [177918]


14 Jan 2008 : Column 1065W

Mr. McNulty: Between September 2004 (the nearest date to the White Paper “Building Communities, Beating Crime”) and March 2007 police officer numbers in Northamptonshire increased by 17 (+1.3 per cent.) to 1,281. For England officer numbers have increased during the same period by 1,617 (+1.2 per cent.) to 132,474.

Police Stations: Closures

Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police stations closed in (a) Suffolk and (b) the east of England in each year since 1997. [175720]

Mr. McNulty: The management of the police estate and allocation of resources are matters for each police authority and the chief officer, who are responsible for assessing local needs.

Police: Expenditure

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will rank police forces in order of expenditure per thousand population in each police force area. [176060]

Mr. McNulty: Police expenditure is determined by each authority within funding by grant and council tax. Government general grant is determined by formula which takes account of a number of factors, not just population.

Information on police authority expenditure and population are set out in the following table.


14 Jan 2008 : Column 1066W
Police authority total gross revenue expenditure and population 2007-08
Police authority Total gross revenue expenditure (£000) Police estimate at June 2007 ( T housand)

Avon and Somerset

281,069

1 ,546,800

Bedfordshire

103,959

582,600

Cambridgeshire

128,665

732,900

Cheshire

187,702

1,000,400

City of London

86,884

327,200

Cleveland

138,836

546,700

Cumbria

112,257

502,700

Derbyshire

172,336

989,300

Devon and Cornwall

288,259

1,629,400

Dorset

127,657

709,700

Durham

129,388

599,000

Dyfed-Powys

98,342

504,500

Essex

289,052

1,665,000

Gloucestershire

115,575

577,400

Greater Manchester

612,035

2,547,700

Gwent

122,204

555,200

Hampshire

324,382

1,800,000

Hertfordshire

192,476

1,056,700

Humberside

182,196

887,500

Kent

316,396

1,634,400

Lancashire

287,976

1,451,800

Leicestershire

177,979

950,000

Lincolnshire

108,166

696,500

Merseyside

355,662

1,355,000

Metropolitan Police

3,341,236

7,500,000

Norfolk

156,716

833,700

North Wales

145,150

674,000

North Yorkshire

147,613

768,700

Northamptonshire

124,424

658,200

Northumbria

317,695

1,385,100

Nottinghamshire

205,545

1,038,300

South Wales

268,595

1,224,500

South Yorkshire

264,662

1,285,600

Staffordshire

191,039

1,050,700

Suffolk

115,994

692,100

Surrey

205,514

1,083,500

Sussex

291,233

1,517,400

Thames Valley

394,881

2,152,000

Warwickshire

94,891

534,500

West Mercia

208,807

1,191,700

West Midlands

600,058

2,590,000

West Yorkshire

465,867

2,125,000

Wiltshire

112,539

630,600

Source:
CIPFA Police Statistics 2007-08 Estimates

Police: Firearms

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department under what circumstances and on whose authority police officers may use hollow-point dum-dum bullets; what assessment she has made of whether use of such bullets is compatible with the UK’s international obligations; and if she will make a statement. [177207]

Mr. McNulty: It is for chief officers to decide what ammunition and weapons are appropriate to use in order to meet their own operational requirements, subject to the general law that use of force by the police must be reasonable in the circumstances.

Police: Greater London

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers have been in post in the London Borough of Havering since 1997; and if she will make a statement. [176794]

Mr. McNulty: While the Home Office has collected police officer data at police force area level since 1997, it only started collecting police officer data at a more local level, namely police basic command units (BCUs), in 2003. For this reason we can only provide figures for Havering (a Metropolitan police BCU) from 2003, and they appear in the following table.

Number of police officers in the London borough of Havering: 2003-07
As at 31 March each year Police officers (FTE)( 1)

2003

340

2004

343

2005

383

2006

380

2007

383

(1) All figures are full-time equivalents (FTE) rounded to the nearest whole number.

14 Jan 2008 : Column 1067W

Police: ICT

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (a) how many and (b) what percentage of (i) police stations and (ii) police forces had livescan units, in each year since 1997. [176055]

Mr. McNulty: Information relating to the number, and the percentage, of police forces with Livescan in each year since 2001 is available and is contained in the following table:

Number of police forces with Livescan Percentage of police forces with Livescan

2001

17

39.50

2002

31

72

2003

33

76.70

2004

35

81.40

2005

35

81.40

2006

43

100

2007

43

100


Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the (a) reliability and (b) effectiveness of headcam technology in tackling crime; if she will make resources available to make this technology more widely available to the police; and if she will make a statement. [176301]

Mr. McNulty: A number of police forces have participated in trialling head cam (or ‘body-worn video device’) technology. This exercise was completed in April 2007 and a report, capturing the learning from the trials and providing other advice, was made available to the police service in July 2007.

In addition, all police forces will benefit from a £3 million Government investment in the current financial year for the procurement of ‘body- worn video device’ devices. This is in recognition of the potential for delivering operational and efficiency gains associated with this kind of technology. The wider roll-out of this body-worn video technology will be fully evaluated later this year.


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