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9 Jun 2008 : Column 80W—continued
Police Stations: Theft
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the value was of goods stolen from police stations in (a) North Yorkshire, (b) West Yorkshire, (c) South Yorkshire and (d) the East Riding of Yorkshire in each of the last three years. [208647]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 5 June 2008]: The information requested is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
This is an operational matter for each Police Authority and Chief Officer.
Police: Bureaucracy
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress is being made in reducing the amount of paperwork required for applications for surveillance by police and others under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. [206621]
Mr. McNulty
[holding answer 19 May 2008]: The Home Office concluded an internal review of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 in 2007. It found that there were instances of unnecessary application of legislation and unnecessarily bureaucratic processes, including where the police service had imposed some bureaucracy on itself. This was mainly caused by uncertainties over what the law required. Since then the Home Office has been working with police and others to raise understanding of what RIPA is for and how it should be used appropriately. Some progress has already been achieved, including improved guidance for practitioners from the new ACPO Covert Investigation Steering Group and from a new statutory code of practice for the acquisition of communications data which came into force on 1 October 2007. Codes on covert surveillance and human intelligence sources are in the process of similar
revision, including whether a set of standard forms on what RIPA requires would reduce misunderstanding and cut paperwork further. The Home Office has estimated that the reduction in form filling so far has freed up, at least, the equivalent of 24 man hours of police time every day of the year.
Police: Europe
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions she has had with European partners on the allocation of European Commission funding for a study examining the feasibility of the creation of an EU federal police force. [208549]
Jacqui Smith: There has been no discussion on this subject and we understand that the European Commission is not allocating any funding to such a study since it is of the opinion that there is no need for such a police force.
Police: Finance
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent by (a) individual police forces in England and Wales and (b) her Department on hardware and software for obtaining, recording and managing activity-based costing data in each year since 2004. [200342]
Mr. McNulty: Police forces in England and Wales procure their own hardware and software for obtaining, recording and managing activity-based costing data. This information is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
In July 2006, the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Association of Police Authorities and the Home Office jointly published the Information Systems Strategy for the Police Service (ISS4PS). This provides a framework for police forces and their authorities, as well as organisations that deliver national projects and services to the Police Service, to plan information and communications technology services. This includes the development and implementation of systems in accordance with agreed standards, including those for software. The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), together with its policing partners, is responsible for a number of existing national IT systems and for developing new ones, including the Police National Database being delivered by the IMPACT programme.
Police: Internet
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent on the website www.neighbourhoodpolicing.co.uk in each month since its inception; what the budget for the website is for 2008-09; how many staff are employed to maintain the website; and how many unique visitors there were to the website in each month since its inception. [200383]
Mr. McNulty: The Neighbourhood Policing Programme website went live in February 2006, replacing the National Reassurance Policing Programme (NRPP) website. It aims to:
keep stakeholders, partners and forces up to date on the latest Neighbourhood Policing developments;
act as a means of sharing documents, practice and case studies;
enable Neighbourhood Policing practitioners to access a range of materials to assist their implementation of Neighbourhood Policing; and
provide the public with basic information about Neighbourhood Policing and the ability to contact forces.
Since 31 March 2008, the Neighbourhood Policing website became the portal to National Police Training in England and Wales.
The website is currently managed by the Neighbourhood Policing Communications Manager and an assistant. Both members of staff work on the site as part of their other regular duties. In addition to these resource costs, the Neighbourhood Policing Team engage an internet management company on a monthly retainer of £525, to assist with the technical management, development and maintenance of the site.
Between February 2006 and 31 March 2008,
has been accessed by 3,732,645 visitors including some from countries such as China, the United States of America, India and Australia.
Police: Manpower
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers there were (a) per head of population and (b) per notifiable offence in each year from 1992 to 1999, in each English county and Metropolitan area. [198528]
Mr. McNulty: The available data are given in the following tables.
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