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1 Apr 2008 : Column 768W—continued
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which police forces are (a) equipped with and (b) piloting niche record management software. [195608]
Mr. McNulty: The following forces are equipped with Niche record management software (RMS):
Cheshire Constabulary
Cleveland Police
Hampshire Constabulary
Merseyside Police
Police Service of Northern Ireland
North Wales Police
North Yorkshire Police
South Wales Police
West Yorkshire Police
Wiltshire Constabulary.
Niche Technology Inc. develops software which is commercially available. I am not aware of any forces, other than those listed, that are currently piloting Niche RMS in a "live" environment.
Police: Pensions
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how much was spent on the police pension scheme in each year since 1980-81; what forecasts she has made of how much will be spent in each year between 2007-08 and 2050-51; how many members of the scheme there are; and if she will make a statement; [195690]
(2) what the cost of pension provision to each constabulary was in each year since 1997; and what percentage of the budget of each force this represented in each of those years. [195691]
Mr. McNulty: The information requested on the total cost of police pensions and on the cost of pension provision as a share of police spending for each constabulary for the years before 2006-07 is not held centrally as the administration of the police pension schemes is the responsibility of individual police authorities. Information on financial statistics, including expenditure on police pensions and overall spending, for police forces is included in the annual reports published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). This information is gathered independently of the Home Office.
However, the system for financing police pensions changed on 1 April 2006. Under the new system, police
authorities no longer have to meet the cost of pensions in payment out of their operating accounts. Police authorities now have a separate pensions account for this purpose, into which are paid officers’ contributions and a new employer’s contribution. Where the pensions account does not have enough funds to meet the cost of pensions in any year it is topped up with a grant from central Government; any surplus is recouped. A key benefit of this change is that it takes away from police authorities the responsibility for meeting the rising cost of pensions in payment as a result of an increase in the number of pensioners.
Figures from the annual police pensions financing reporting cycle show that based on police forces’ unaudited accounts for 2006-07, the estimated pensions expenditure from forces’ pensions accounts under the new system across the service was £1.96 billion—£1.46 billion net of the contributions made by serving officers.
The following figures are the most recently published projections of total future expenditure on police pensions in England and Wales, net of the contributions made by serving officers. These were produced by the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) as part of the consultation process on the new system for funding police pensions in 2005. GAD advise that in view of the time elapsed since the figures were produced they should be viewed only as indicative as the likely future trend of police pensions expenditure. No projections are available for 2013-14 to 2050-51.
The following table outlines figures for the expenditure of each police force on employer contributions for police pension purposes, based on their unaudited accounts, set against each force’s budget requirement for 2006-07 as a percentage.
Membership figures are not held centrally, but we estimate that there are approximately 140,000 active members of one or other of the two Police Pension Schemes. We also estimate that there are approximately 120,000 police pensioners, including survivor pensions, and a further 20,000 police deferred pensioners. This gives a total estimate of 280,000 members of the police pension schemes.
| Financial year | Estimated pensions expenditure (£ billion) |
| Financial year 2006-07 | |||
| Police force | Budget requirement 2006 | Un-audited accounts 2006-07 Employers contributions (£000) | percentage of budget |
Police: Political Impartiality
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent guidance has been given to chief constables on the use by political parties of photographs of named police officers in election leaflets. [196296]
Mr. McNulty: Regulation 6 of the Police Regulations 2003 as amended by the Police (Amendment) Regulations 2004 states that:
“a member of a police force shall at all times abstain from any activity which is likely to interfere with the impartial discharge of his duties or which is likely to give rise to the impression amongst members of the public that it may so interfere. A member of a police force shall in particular (a) not take any active part in politics”.
No guidance has been issued to police forces on the interpretation of these provisions.
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