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22 May 2008 : Column 463W—continued

Pakistan

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the outcomes of her recent visit to Pakistan were; and if she will make a statement. [203939]

Mr. McNulty [holding answer 7 May 2008]: My right hon. Friend, the Home Secretary visited Pakistan from 7 to 8 April. She had bilateral talks with Prime Minister Yusuf Gillani, Interior Adviser Rehman Malik, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Information Minister, Sherry Rahman. She also delivered a keynote speech at the Pakistan National Council of Arts on counter-terrorism, met UK Borders Agency staff serving overseas and was briefed on the British high commission's programme to tackle forced marriage.


22 May 2008 : Column 464W

On counter-terrorism issues we agreed to an early meeting of our Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Organised Crime and a joint workshop on extremism to be held in Pakistan. On migration issues, Pakistan agreed to continue to honour our bilateral MOU on returns to remove those persons already in the United Kingdom, once the European Community Readmission Agreement is signed. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has also invited Interior Adviser Malik to visit the UK later this year.

Passengers: Surveys

Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether her Department plans to increase the size of the sample in the International Passenger Survey. [206839]

Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 22 May 2008:

Police National Computer: Data Protection

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what mechanisms are in place to detect careless and abusive disclosures from the Police National Computer. [204220]


22 May 2008 : Column 465W

Mr. McNulty: The detection and prevention of unlawful disclosure from the Police National Computer (PNC) is a matter for individual police forces and other criminal justice agencies with access to PNC data. All organisations with access to PNC data are bound by the Data Protection Act 1998; controls specified in the Risk Management Accreditation Document Set for the PNC; and their own internal security procedures.

Police National Missing Persons Bureau

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the operation of the Police National Missing Persons Bureau. [199334]

Mr. McNulty: The Missing Persons Bureau took over responsibility from the Metropolitan Police Service’s Police National Missing Persons Bureau on 1 April 2008. It is not yet possible to assess its operational effectiveness in its new capacity.

A review of the former Police National Missing Persons Bureau carried out by Perry Nove was completed in 2005. As a result of the review, a strategic oversight group, chaired by the Association of Chief Police Officers, has been created with responsibility for the direction and co-ordination of the response to the issue of missing persons.

Police: Airports

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost of policing each airport was in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [198491]

Mr. McNulty: There are currently nine airports “designated” under the Aviation Security Act 1982 for policing purposes—London Heathrow, London Gatwick, London Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow International, Prestwick, Aberdeen, Manchester and Birmingham. At these airports the airport operator is required to meet the costs of the agreed uniformed police presence. At non-designated airports, they either have a dedicated uniformed police presence or the police attend when there is an operational need to do so. These costs are funded wholly or partly by the police authority in which that airport is located, or by other means, for example, voluntary contributions by the airport operator. The cost of uniformed police officers at each airport is therefore not held centrally.

The Home Office Dedicated Security Posts (DSP) Grant provides the central contribution to the policing costs for of specific security functions, including the Special Branch presence at ports. The grants paid to police forces towards the costs of funding their Special Branch officers at ports in financial years 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 were £70.6 million, £71.4 million and £72.6 million respectively. Figures prior to these dates were not compiled in the same way and it is therefore not possible to provide data in a comparable form.

The allocation of the DSP grant by airport is not disclosed since to do so could prejudice border security by revealing how Special Branch officers are deployed for counter terrorism purposes. Moreover, chief constables are responsible for the deployment of
22 May 2008 : Column 466W
Special Branch officers at airports within their force area, and deployment patterns may change during the year for operational reasons.

Police: Bureaucracy

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the average proportion of police officers’ time spent on patrol per day in each of the last 10 years. [200388]

Mr. McNulty: I refer the hon. Member to my response of 10 December 2007, Official Report, column 91W.

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of time on average (a) all police officers and (b) patrol officers spent on (i) incident-related paperwork, (ii) non-incident related paperwork, (iii) all paperwork and (iv) on patrol in each year since 2003-04. [200389]

Mr. McNulty: The information requested is not held centrally.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan’s Review of Policing, published in February this year, addressed the issue of police-related bureaucracy. The review made a number of recommendations on this subject, including a review of police operational codes of practice, the expansion of mobile data, a more in-depth analysis of risk (and how this in turn may impact on bureaucratic tendencies in the service), and the further streamlining of criminal justice processes. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has endorsed Sir Ronnie’s report and expects his recommendations to form the next drive against unnecessary bureaucracy in the police service.

Police: Databases

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crime scene marks are outstanding on police databases. [202012]

Mr. McNulty: As at 25 April 2008, the IDENT1 database contained 1, 696,286 unidentified crime scene marks—these being a combination of palm and finger marks. This represents the accumulation of such marks over the years from the various systems that migrated into NAFIS in 1999, which was then superseded by IDENT1 in 2005.

Police: Dismissal

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) male and (b) female police officers of each age group (i) resigned and (ii) were dismissed by Essex police in each year since 1997; and for what reasons in each case. [201954]


22 May 2008 : Column 467W

Mr. McNulty: The requested data on age breakdowns and reasons for resignation/dismissal are not collected centrally. The available data have been collected since 2002-03 and are given in the following table.

Police officer leavers (FTE)( 1) for Essex police force from 2002-03 to 2006-07( 2)
Resignations Dismissals
Female Male Female Male

2002-03(3)

3

9

n/a

n/a

2003-04

13

23

1

2

2004-05

16

50

1

1

2005-06

17

62

1

8

2006-07

18

63

0

5

n/a = data not available
(1) Full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Because of rounding, there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of the constituent items. Data have not previously been previously published in this format therefore totals may not match totals found in the published data.
(2) Financial year runs 1 April to 31 March inclusive. Comparable data are not available prior to 2002-03.
(3) Excludes quarters 1, 2 and 3, data not available.

Police: Early Retirement

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers in Essex constabulary of each sex took early retirement in each year since 1997. [201953]

Mr. McNulty: The information requested is a matter for the Essex constabulary.

Police: Expenditure

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 14 January 2008, Official Report, columns 1065-66W, on police: expenditure, if she will update the information in the Answer with the most recent figures. [201601]

Mr. McNulty: The answer I gave to the hon. Gentleman on 14 January 2008, Official Report, columns 1065-66W contains the most current data available.


22 May 2008 : Column 468W

Police: Finance

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions she has had with HM Treasury on the use of activity-based costing data to determine police grant funding levels; and if she will make a statement. [200341]

Mr. McNulty: My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary holds discussions with HM Treasury on a range of police issues.

Police: Manpower

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff were employed by North Wales police in (a) 2006 and (b) 2007, broken down by function. [203530]

Mr. McNulty [holding answer 6 May 2008]: The data requested are published annually in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin series “Police Service Strength, England and Wales” and are given in the following table.

Police Service strength (FTE)( 1) for North Wales police as at 31 March 2006 and 2007
31 March 2006 31 March 2007

Police officers

1,634

1,608

Police staff

882

759

Police community support officers

58

145

Designated officers

0

37

Traffic wardens

2

1

(1) Full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Because of rounding there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of the constituent items.

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers there were per 100,000 population in each police force area in each of the last five years, ranked in order of highest to lowest ratio. [204644]

Mr. McNulty: The available data are taken from the Home Office Statistical Bulletin series “Police Service Strength, England and Wales” and are given in the following table.


22 May 2008 : Column 469W

22 May 2008 : Column 470W
Police officers( 1) (FTE)( 2) per 100.000 of the population for by police force, as at 31 March 2003 to 31 March 2007
Police force 31 March 2003 31 March 2004 31 March 2005 31 March 2006 31 March 2007

Metropolitan Police(3)

404

420

417

417

426

West Midlands

307

311

318

318

318

Greater Manchester

298

323

318

318

314

Merseyside

302

303

315

315

325

Cleveland

294

314

308

308

315

Northumbria

290

294

291

291

283

Durham

281

288

288

288

285

South Wales

273

275

271

271

273

West Yorkshire

242

254

270

270

270

Gwent

244

248

264

264

268

South Yorkshire

252

261

259

259

256

Cumbria

237

254

256

256

255

Humberside

244

256

251

251

251

Lancashire

239

252

253

253

252

Nottinghamshire

239

245

243

243

235

North Wales

234

243

242

242

238

Leicestershire

232

246

241

241

237

Dyfed-Powys

237

236

237

237

236

Gloucestershire

219

229

228

228

229

Kent

221

228

227

227

229

Avon and Somerset

213

229

226

226

224

Cheshire

217

224

223

223

225

Staffordshire

212

218

219

219

219

Devon and Cornwall

204

208

219

219

216

Dorset

205

209

216

216

217

Derbyshire

210

216

212

212

209

Hampshire

208

211

211

211

215

North Yorkshire

193

203

216

216

217

Bedfordshire

198

210

213

213

207

Sussex

203

206

207

207

205

Hertfordshire

191

204

208

208

210

West Mercia

196

202

202

202

205

Northamptonshire

194

198

207

207

200

Warwickshire

198

197

198

198

199

Essex

186

192

203

203

203

Thames Valley

186

195

202

202

199

Cambridgeshire

196

197

196

196

187

Wiltshire

190

198

196

196

192

Suffolk

188

196

191

191

196

Norfolk

189

190

193

193

191

Lincolnshire

191

189

183

183

183

Surrey

182

183

184

184

183

London, City of(3)

*

*

*

*

*

1 This table is based on full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Because of rounding, there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of the constituent items.
(2) Figures up to 31 March 2002 exclude staff on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. The figures for 31 March 2003 onwards figures include those on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave.
3. Officers per 100,000 population for City of London and Metropolitan Police are combined.

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