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8 Feb 2010 : Column 752W—continued
National Identity Register: Scotland
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many record checks have been made against the National Identity Register by (a) the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency and (b) other Scottish agencies since the introduction of the scheme. [315629]
Meg Hillier: Since the launch of the National Identity Service for British citizens in November 2009, there have yet to be any requests for provision of information from the register to the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency or to any other Scottish agencies.
North Yorkshire Police: Finance
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received from North Yorkshire Police on its budget allocation for 2010-11. [316121]
Passports: Interviews
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many interviews at passport centres resulted in the refusal of a passport in 2009. [313501]
Meg Hillier: There were two passport applications refused in 2009 as a direct result of personal interviews.
Identity interviews were added to the passport process primarily to address first time application fraud through deterrence and fraud detection arising from a personal interview. In addition to the two instances of confirmed fraud applications have also been withdrawn when customers are advised that an identity interview is required. From September 2007 to June 2009 which is the latest information available, 1,816 applications were withdrawn at this stage. Together this information underlines the usefulness of the interview as a deterrent to those attempting to make a fraudulent passport application.
Police
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his Department provides guidance to the police on numbers of officers attending raids on premises. [315559]
Mr. Hanson: While there is no guidance specific to the number of police officers attending raids, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Manual of Guidance on Keeping the Peace assists the police in preparing for and managing events where there is a risk to public safety or a potential for disorder. Specifically the Conflict Management Model states the commanding police officer should have regard to:
Available information/intelligence;
Threat assessment;
Requirement to use powers and policy appropriately and lawfully in compliance with, national, regional and local legislation and guidance;
Tactical options;
Requirement to act in compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Police: Assessments
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what proportion of police officers have failed work-based assessments in the pilot areas for such assessments. [315077]
Mr. Hanson: Work-based assessment is the final step of the four step National Police Promotion Framework which is currently being trialled in 10 police forces. It allows police officers who are temporarily promoted to be developed and assessed in the workplace before being substantively promoted. After assessments of competence and legal knowledge, police forces can use their own assessment methods to select the most suitable police officers to undertake work-based assessment of national occupational standards. This process gives police forces the flexibility to manage the number of successful police officers in accordance with local operational and workforce planning objectives.
National Police Promotion Framework Steps
Step One: Suitability. Police officers are eligible to enter the promotion process once they have established their competence in their current rank. Candidates must be endorsed as suitable for promotion by their Line Manager.
Step Two: Legal Examination. This is established through taking the OSPRE(r) Part I Legal Examination, which is a national paper based multiple choice examination.
Step Three: Assessment against rank specific competencies and matching to vacancies. Police officers' potential to perform at the next rank is assessed against the relevant behavioural competencies.
Step Four: Temporary Promotion and Work Based Assessment. Police officers demonstrate competence in the rank to which they aspire and are supported over a 12 month period in order to ready them for substantial promotion.
Pass and failure rates since l April 2009 for each of the steps are set out in the table below. These do not refer to discrete cohorts of candidates but to the number of assessments within the time period.
| National police promotion framework sergeants' process | ||||
| Step 1 | Step 2( 1) | Step 3 | Step 4 | |
| (1) Data for Step Two as Sergeants OSPRE(r) . Part 1 examination takes place once a year in March, therefore falls outside of the time period quoted | ||||
| National police promotion framework inspectors' process | ||||
| Step 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 | |
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effects on the workload of police sergeants and inspectors in the pilot areas for work-based assessments of those assessments; and what the cost to the police has been of implementing and managing those assessments. [315078]
Mr. Hanson: Police officers are assessed in line with the "Qualifications and Credit Framework National Vocational Qualification Code of Practice". Police forces are registered with awarding bodies who ensure compliance with their assessment strategy.
The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) is collecting data from the 10 police forces involved in the National Police Promotion Framework Trial. These data incorporate an element of work-based assessment, on police force costs and the resource implications for police officers. This will form part of the evaluation of the trial and will be considered by the Police Promotion Examinations Board, which is made up of all of the main policing stakeholders.
The data are currently unavailable, they will be available only at the end of the trial period, which is anticipated to be spring 2011.
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made on the pilots work-based assessments for the police; and whether he has plans to implement work-based assessments outside the pilot areas. [315079]
Mr. Hanson:
The National Policing Improvement Agency has been working with the National Police
Promotion Framework Trial Project Board to drive forward improvements over the trial period. There has been progress on implementing national standards through the licensing system and a comprehensive equality impact assessment has been published The development of the new National Occupational Standards and a new Strategic User Group has been established.
The two year National Police Promotion Framework Trial, which incorporates an element of work-based assessment, is due for completion in March 2011. There are currently no plans to roll this out to other police forces before an evaluation has been completed.
Police: Manpower
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers per 100,000 of population there are in (a) Northamptonshire and (b) England. [316068]
Mr. Hanson: I refer the hon. Member for Wellingborough to my previous answer on 14 December 2009, Official Report, column 632.
As at 31 March 2009, there were 196 police officers per 100,000 population in Northamptonshire and 266 police officers per 100,000 population in England and Wales.
This and other related data are published annually as part of the annual Police Service Strength Home Office Statistical Bulletin. The latest bulletin can be found at:
and bulletins for this and previous years are deposited in the Library of the House.
Stress
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library a copy of the advice issued to staff of his Department on stress recognition and management. [314524]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office and its agencies are committed to protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of its staff, and recognise the importance of managing risk factors in the workplace. The policy for Home Office HQ, UKBA and IPS on stress recognition and management is published in Home Office Notice 41/2007; a similar policy exists in CRB. The HSE were consulted during the creation of this policy which is based on the HSE Management Standards. A copy of the policy documents will be placed in the Library.
Additional advice and support is also made available to staff via the Home Office intranet, stress awareness sessions, Occupational Health Service and our Employee Assistance Programme.
Sussex Police: Manpower
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) police officers there were in each year since 1997 and (b) police community support officers there were in each year since 2002 in Sussex Police. [315774]
Mr. Hanson: The available data are provided in the following tables.
| Police officer strength in Sussex, as at 31 March, 1997 to 2009, and September 2009 | |
| Police officers | Full-time equivalent( 1) |
| (1) This table contains full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. All officers less staff on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave (comparable with previously published figures). (2) Comparable strength (excludes those on career breaks, or maternity/paternity leave). The Police Numbers Task Force (2001) recommended that a clear presentation was made of the numbers of staff employed by police forces including those seconded into the force and those on any type of long or short-term absence. These new calculations were first used in 2003, and are not comparable with data prior to March 2003. The data from 2003 onwards used here are termed comparable because they have been calculated on the old basis to allow comparison. | |
| PCSO strength in Sussex, as at 31 March, 2002 - 09 | |
| PCSO | Full-time equivalent( 1) |
| (1) This table contains full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Notes: 1. Full-time equivalent include those on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. 2. Police community support officers were introduced in statute in 2002, therefore data are not available prior to 2002-03. | |
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